Star Wars Cake

Guess what? One month to my wedding. We’ve been really busy with the final details and most of the things are done. Everyone is super excited, but is it OK that I’m not? We’ve been planning it for a year, so I’m kind of done. And I feel kind of guilty for feeling this way. Anyone else felt like this? Hopefully I get a second wind and get excited closer to the date!

In the meantime, there are a bunch of baking projects. One is a Star Wars cake for a now 6 year old (What? When did that happened??) boy. I’ve made these cupcakes and this cake for him in the past. This year he requested a vanilla Start Wars cake, which was a bit challenging because I know nothing about Star Wars. And I wanted to make a version that didn’t use fondant. Here’s the final cake! I hope he likes it!!!

Star Wars Cake

Vanilla Funfetti Cake

I used this Vanilla Buttermilk Cake originally from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes 

I tossed some sprinkles on the cake batter after pouring in the baking pans and swirled it with a butter knife.

Whipped Vanilla Pudding Buttercream

Ingredients

1 vanilla pudding cup

1 ½ cups butter, room temperature

6 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Blue and yellow gel food colouring

Directions

1. Combine butter, icing sugar, and vanilla pudding cup in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with a paddle to combine.

2. Add vanilla and beat on high until fluffy.

3. Divide into 3: about 1 cup for the filling, 1/3 cup for the label and stars (yellow), and the remaining for the outer layer (blue). Add food colouring and whip until smooth and blended.

Assembly

Fill the layers with white frosting. Crumb coat the entire cake with blue frosting. Use the yellow frosting to pipe stars and the Star Wars label.

*I made a stencil for the Star Wars label with acetate. I first placed the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes, then placed the stencil on the cake and smeared the yellow frosting over top. I put it back in the freezer for about 5 minutes before carefully removing the stencil.

Smearing buttercream on my stencil.

Verdict: This is my go to recipe for vanilla cake. Dense but fluffy and moist – a very pleasant texture. The frosting was a bit sweet for my liking, but an American style buttercream crusts (as opposed to Swiss Meringue Buttercream), which I needed for a smooth and sturdy cake. I was happy with the way the stenciled label turned out. Yay, no fondant needed!

Candy Cake

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Did you have enough desserts? Well get ready for more!

For my friend’s birthday, I wanted to make her a cake covered in candies. I’ve had this idea for a while because she loves candy! So why not cover a cake with the tons of the stuff she loves?? In my case, it would be a cake covered in bread. Mmm, b...r…e…a…d. The other day, someone asked me what my guilty pleasure was that I couldn’t say no to, and I realized it was bread. In fact, skip the cake, just give me a loaf of bread (it can be shaped like a cake).

Anyways, this year my friend was having a tea party to celebrate the big day. Last year she had a sleepover (remember this) and the year before I made a fruit topped cake. Yay tea party! How refined!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Vanilla Cake

Feel free to use your favorite vanilla cake recipe. I used this one and baked it in 3 6-inch cake pans.

White Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup salted butter, softened

4 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup milk

¼ cup marshmallow fluff

Directions

Add all ingredients in a bowl of a stand mixer with a beater attachment and beat on a lower speed until somewhat combined. Increase speed and beat until light and fluffy.

Ready for candy.

Assembly

1.  Fill cakes with your choice of jam. I used black currant.

2.  Apply a crumb coat and place in freezer for 5 minutes.

3.  Apply another coat of frosting and smooth with a spatula dipped in hot water.

4.  Got to town with candies!!!

Verdict: Nailed it! This cake was so fun and easy to make and the candy options were endless! The birthday girl loved it – as I used her favorite candies. Here’s a picture of us that evening.

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.