Whipped Frosting with Raspberry

Remember all those fails I was encountering? Getting closer, but still not there. This cake was better than this one, but still a bit dense and chewy. But I found a new great frosting!

I’ve been hesitant about using whipped cream in cakes because it droops with time. But I got my hands on some whipped cream stabilizer to keep it nice and stiff! There are a bunch of tricks floating around out there for stabilizing whipped cream – cornstarch, gelatin, marshmallow, mascarpone, draining, just to name a few. I’m not sure what’s in this stabilizer, but I suspect it’s cornstarch…

Anyways, this is my new favorite frosting because it’s so easy to make and use. No butter bring to room temperature and cream, no egg whites to heat. Just whip up with some icing sugar and you’re done.  PLUS, it’s not too sweet or heavy or rich!

Whipped Frosting with Raspberry

Ingredients

1 ½ cups whip/heavy cream

1 ½ Tablespoon stabilizer

¼ cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

Jar of raspberry jam

*tip: place metal bowl in freezer before making frosting

Directions

1.    In a chilled metal bowl, whip the cream with a whisk attachment to soft peaks.

2.    Add stabilizer and whisk to blend.  Add sprinkle icing sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat to stiff peaks. Do not over beat.

3.    Line a piping bag with jam and add whipped cream. Don’t fill all the way – you’ll need to refill in batches because the jam runs out pretty quickly.

4.    Cover entire cake with a thin layer of whipped cream. I skipped this step because I was lazy, but you’ll definitely want to do this.

5.    Pipe roses (I used a 1M tip) ideally equally spaced apart and not overlapping. Fill in gaps with a smaller star tip.

Rose piping is the easiest decorating technique ever and even when your roses aren’t identical, the overall effect of the cake is pretty. I think has the highest prettiness to difficulty ratio, or to put it another way, the most bang for the (little) effort.

Anyways, back to recipe testing!

Raspberry Cassis Layer Cake

This is a story about a cake wreck and a resulting cake scramble. 

For a long time now, I had been fantasizing about making a cake that’s covered in torched meringue.  They look so awesome with the white and caramelized brown edges. Plus how often do you come across a chance to eat a cake like that?

Well, an opportunity to make the cake opened up for a birthday. I knew that I wanted the inside of the cake to be light and fluffy, just like the meringue outside.  And I knew that I wanted it to resemble a pie – think lemon meringue pie, blueberry pie, coconut cream pie, banana cream pie. I landed on something like a mango pie.

This is how the mango meringue cake turned out.

This is what happened after about 15 minutes.

The chiffon cake was too soft, the meringue disk in the middle became a slip-and-slide for the mango curd, the meringue frosting was not stiff enough, and the entire cake shifted (even though I had put a dowel in it!). I couldn’t serve this (although, I was quite happy with myself for not having a mental breakdown and getting upset as I normally would have!).

So, I had 3.5 hours to put together a new cake with whatever I had. Out popped out a Raspberry Cassis Layer Cake.  Luckily, I had made baked meringue peaks with leftover meringue from the previous cake.

By the way, cassis is black currant and also the best flavour of ALL time.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Raspberry Cassis Layer Cake

Vanilla Cake

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

¼ cup vegetable oil (e.g., canola)

1 1/3 cup sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoon vanilla (+ ¼ teaspoon ground vanilla bean, optional but highly recommended)

2 cups cake flour

½  cup all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of 2, 6-inch cake pans with parchment and grease and flour the sides.

2.  Beat butter to soften. Add oil and sugar, and beat until fluffy.

3.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and beat to combine.

4.  In a separate bowl, sift both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine.

5.  Add flour to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk and beating on low just until combined.

6.  Divide into the cake pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7.  Spoon about half of the vanilla simple syrup (recipe to follow) over the three cakes while in pans, and cool for 20 minutes.

8.  Turn out on rack and spoon the remaining syrup over the bottom of cake layers and cool completely.

Vanilla Simple Syrup

Combine ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup water, and 1/8 teaspoon ground vanilla beans in a small saucepan and heat on medium until sugar is dissolved.

Raspberry Cassis Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

3 egg whites (75g)

½ cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar (125g)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into ½-inch cubes

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup fresh raspberries or thawed frozen raspberries

2 heaping Tablespoons black currant jam

Directions

1.  In a clean metallic bowl, with a clean whisk (no trace of grease/oil/fat), combine egg whites and sugar, and lightly beat over a pot of simmering water until the mixture reaches 140 degrees F.

2.  Take off heat and whisk on high until thick, glossy, and cooled.

3.  Switch to a beater and while on medium high, add cubes of butter one at a time.

4.  Beat on high until smooth and silky. Add vanilla, salt, raspberries, and black current jam, and beat to combine.

Assembly

1.  Level cake layers with a bread knife.

2.  Place first layer on cake plate. Pipe a bridge of buttercream around the edge of the cake.

3.  Fill with black currant jam.

4.  Place next cake layer on top, and repeat. Top with final cake layer.

5.  Spread entire cake with a thin crumb coat, and final layer.

Verdict: The Raspberry Cassis Cake was a hit! No one had made a cake for the birthday girl before so she was really happy, PLUS, raspberry happened to be one of her favorite flavours! Yay, luck was on my side! The cake layers were fluffy and moist with a pretty delicate crumb and the baked meringue peaks gave it a texture contrast.

By the way, the mango meringue cake was phenomenal – super fluffy and cloud-like. Just what I wanted – at least now I know that it needs more of a sturdy structure. I’ll try again another time.

Raspberry Lime Cake

I wanted to surprise my friend with a small and cool cake for her birthday.  Something geared for adults. Last year I made her this cake, so I wanted to make her something that was completely different.  I knew that I wanted a fluffy vanilla cake with a unique filling.  I decided to go with lime curd, which was a bit risky because not everyone likes lime.  I figured that if I added raspberries, it might make it safer.  Of course, I topped it with Swiss meringue buttercream (lime flavoured) because it recently became my favorite frosting. So light and fluffy, and not too sweet.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post! Kind of nervous!

Fluffy Vanilla Cake

Slightly adapted from here.

I used 2, 5-inch baking pans

Ingredients

2.5 egg whites (75g), room temperature

½ egg

½ cup whole milk, room temperature

1 teaspoons vanilla (I used ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon LorAnn Princess Cake emulsion)

1.5 cups cake flour, sifted

1 cups sugar

½ Tablespoon baking powder

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoon (85g) salted butter, cut into cubes, cold

Directions

1.  Line the bottom of 2, 5-inch baking pans with parchment paper and grease and flour the sides.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In a bowl, mix egg whites, egg, milk, and vanilla. Set aside.

3.  In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, and baking powder.

4.  With the paddle on, add cubes of cold butter one at a time, waiting about 10 seconds between each addition. Keep mixing until you get a crumbly texture – there should not be any chunks of butter.

5.  Add the egg/milk mixture in 3 batches.  Mix until light and fluffy.

6.  Divide between baking pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean – do not over bake.

7.  Cool for 10 minutes before taking out of pans. Once completely cooled, slice off domed top and into 2 layers.

Lime Curd

From here.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

Zest from 2 limes

2 eggs

½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from 2 limes)

¼ cup salted butter, cut into cubes

Optional: green gel food colouring

Directions

1.  Combined sugar, zest, eggs, and lime juice in a metal bowl and place over a pot of simmering water (double boiler).

2.  Whisk continuously until thickened, 10-15 minutes.

3.  Place butter in a bowl and strain the curd over the butter.  Mix until combined. Add a touch of green gel food colouring to enhance the green colour.

4.  Cool in refrigerator before using. 

Lime Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

2.5 (75g) egg whites

½ cup sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1.  Wipe down bowl of stand mixer and whisk attachment with vinegar using a paper towel.

2.  Combine egg white and sugar in the bowl and place over simmering water.  Whisk continuously by hand until the temperature reaches 140 degrees F.

3.  Place the bowl in the stand mixer and whip until stiff peaks form and the meringue has cooled.

4.  Switch to a paddle attachment and add cubes of butter one at a time while beating.  Beat until smooth and silky.

5.  Add salt and vanilla and beat to combine.

6.  Optional: Take 1/3 cup of buttercream out and reserve for making raspberry buttercream.

7.  To the remaining buttercream, add ¼ cup of lime curd and beat to combine.

8.  Add a little bit of green food colouring.

9.  For raspberry buttercream, whip with about 5 fresh raspberries.

Assembly

1.  Fill cake by placing a ring of buttercream on the edge of the first layer.  Fill will lime curd. Top with raspberries.  Repeat with remaining layers.

2.  Crumb coat cake by adding a layer of buttercream on the entire cake and scraping off excess.  Put in freezer for 5 minutes before adding final layer.

3.  Embellish with raspberry buttercream and fresh raspberries.

Verdict:  My friend was super surprised by the cake and it was perfect because we ended up having an impromptu birthday celebration for her.  The vanilla cake was fairly moist and had a nice crumb, although I kind of wished that it was a bit fluffier.  The lime curd was delicious and added a contrasting sourness to the sweetness of the cake. The raspberries were a perfect complementing flavour to the lime. The cake fed 8 adults and 3 kids (with 2 slices left over) and everyone liked it, even the kids!