The salted chocolate blog : layer cake

Showing posts with label layer cake. Show all posts

Moist vanilla cake topped with a not-too-sweet, dreamy perfect frosting, layered in the colours of the rainbow.

Who doesn't like a rainbow cake for their birthday? Believe me, there is something so cute about a colourful cake with the colourful childhood memories and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. No one could resist a slice of this old fashioned vanilla cake transformed into something brand new. And don't be fooled by its appearance- it's incredibly easy to make. As long as you know how to make a basic pound cake and have knowledge of simple frosting and decorating techniques, you're good to go!

The frosting I used in this recipe is a Cooked flour frosting. I know, sounds yucky. But it tastes incredible! It's smooth, creamy, rich vanilla flavour, and definetly much less sweeter than an American Buttercream Frosting. Because of the lesser amount of butter in this recipe, the frosting stays smooth and creamy in the fridge and doesn't crust up. Because of this, this frosting may not be suitable for all cakes, but it's good for cakes that don't need too much crusting. It almost tastes like vanilla ice cream.

This frosting recipe is a little more complicated than the usual buttercream. It starts of by cooking a flour paste- whisking together milk and flour till it is thick and creamy, almost like thick brownie batter. Then cream butter and granulated sugar till it's let and fluffy. It's really important to beat it till it's quite light, otherwise the frosting will turn out to be more of a yellowy colour. The last thing to add is the cooled flour paste, and best them together till they are all well incorporated. If it's is too soft to work with, refrigerate the frosting first and take it out a few minutes before you use it.

The vanilla cake is a basic vanilla pound cake recipe. Creaming equal amounts of butter, sugar, then adding in vanilla, eggs followed by the self-raising flour, which contains the leavening agents needed for the cake to rise.

Then you divide the cske batter into 6 bowls and add the food colouring. Before baking them in a preheated 180 degrees celsius oven. I only had one 6-inch cake pan, so I baked the cake 6 times. Each cake layer only takes about 8 minutes, so don't worry about the time!

The cake is moist and fluffy and stays flat throughout baking (you don't need to trim the tops of the cakes) and the frosting is the BEST I have ever tasted! Try this out and I promise you would not be dissappointed. :)

Rainbow Cake

Makes a 6-inch layer cake

Vanilla Sponge

225g butter, softened
225g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, at room temperature
225g self-raising flour, sifted
Food colouring paste – red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and best until incorporated. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in the flour and mix until just incorporated.

Weigh the batter and divide into 6 bowls, and colour with the food colouring until you reach the colour you desire. Transfer the coloured batter into a 6-inch cake tin that has been greased and the bottom has been lined with parchment paper, and bake each tin for 8-10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If you are doubling the recipe for an 8-inch cake, bake for about 15 minutes. Cool the cake to room temperature before frosting.

Cooked Flour Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
5 tbs flour

In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk the milk and flour until no lumps remain. Heat and whisk the mixture until it forms a thick paste, like brownie batter. Cool to room temperature before using

Beat the butter sugar until very light and fluffy. Add in the flour paste and beat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Refrigerate until ready to frost.

To Assemble

Place the purple layer on a cake stand, and add a dollop of frosting on top, spread evenly, before adding blue, followed by green, yellow, orange and red. Crumb coat the cake and refrigerate for 1 hour before frosting the entire cake generously.

Moist vanilla cake topped with a not-too-sweet, dreamy perfect frosting, layered in the colours of the rainbow. Who doesn't like a rainb...

A green tea flavoured cake covered in sweet vanilla bean frosting. :)

I'm submitting this cake for the SCS Butter Challenge! I didn't manage to take awesome photos but I guess they're fine. The cake has a subtle matcha flavour and the frosting is a tad bit sweet for my taste, but they work well together.

I love the little ruffles on the top of this cake! It was done using a petal tip, and layered around the top of the cake. As you can see, I didn't do a really good job with the frosting. I didn't cover a whole cake property and you can still see bits of the matcha cake on top.

(ft. SCS butter, which isn't very obvious but oh well)

The cake is nice and moist. Make sure you use a good quality matcha powder. You can get the best quality ones at Japanese supermarkets (I usually get mine at ISETAN). They are usually a little expensive but it's worth the money because you get lots of matcha flavour in just a little bit of matcha powder.

I'm not a big fan of American Buttercream Frostings. They are usually too sweet for my taste and a little too buttery and rich. If you prefer a less sweet frosting, try out cooked flour frosting ore imbue based ones like Swiss meringue buttercream or Italian meringue buttercream. Or dark chocolate frosting, since you usually replace some of the icing sugar with cocoa powder so the frosting is less sweet. :)

I used vanilla bean paste in this frosting, and I love how you can see the little speckles of vanilla bean in the frosting. Vanilla is always good!

Matcha Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Matcha Cake

Adapted from http://buildingbuttercream.blogspot.sg/2012/03/green-tea-layer-cake-with-lemon-honey.html

Ingredients
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cake flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons powdered green tea
½ cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1½ eggs
½ cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line two 6" round cake pans with parchment paper. Grease and flour.
Sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes before turning out of the pans.

Vanilla Bean Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla bean paste/ vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp milk (optional, if necessary)

1. Beat the room temperature butter until fluffy and pale.

2. Add in the confectioner's sugar a cup at a time, until fully incorporated.

3. Continue beating for 2-3 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean paste.

4. Adjust the consistency of the frosting by adding more confectioners sugar to make it stiffer or adding milk to make it less stiff.

A green tea flavoured cake covered in sweet vanilla bean frosting. :) I'm submitting this cake for the SCS Butter Challenge! I didn...

A stunning 3-layer cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and cherries.

I've been wanting to share this recipe with you for ages. Unfortunately, exams came and went, i started complaining about all my grades, I baked more comfort foods that I just didn't feel like posting, and I kind of forgot about this beauty.

I think you know what I mean.

Apologies for the lack of photos. I had exams and oh well my mind slipped off. And sorry no photos of the inside, because we finished it too quickly hehehe.

I can't say this is a real blackforest cake. Because it doesn't look like one. Mainly because I'm not a big fan of plain whipped cream. Sorry, I'm that chocoholic gal that needs chocolate in everycake, in the cake and frosting and everything.

I made this for Mother's Day and my mum was all oohs and aahs about the roses, but she was like "Are you sure this is a blackforest cake?".

So let's just call this a chocolate blackforest cake haha.

The cake starts off with the layers. A rich chocolate cake made with all cocoa. I love all cocoa chocolate cakes. Firstly, because it saves me the trouble of having to melt chocolate, and secondly because it's packed with much more chocolate flavour and dark chocolatey goodness that melted chocolate.

Anyway, all you need to make this cake is a bowl and spoon. Really. It's very very easy. No mixer required!

I filled the layers with chocolate whipped cream and canned cherries that I gently smashed with a fork.

The frosting on top is my favourite chocolate cream cheese frosting. Super easy and not too sweet. You can adjust this frosting by adding more milk of cocoa. You need the frosting to be relatively firm to pipe the roses so they would hold their shape. You can use your favourite buttercream frosting, but I love my cream cheese frosting because it's firm, chocolatey and the best frosting ever.

Blackforest Cake Recipe

Chocolate cake

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp espresso powder

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease and flour 3 8-inch baking tins.

Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and soda, salt and espresso powder.

Add milk, oil, eggs and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Add the boiling water and beat for one minutes to add air into the batter.

Divide the cake batter evenly between 3 cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Leave the cool and chill until ready to assemble.

Filling

Ingredients

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbs sugar

2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup (240ml) heavy cream

1 can of canned cherries, in heavy syrup

Place the vanilla extract, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and cocoa powder in the cold bowl.

Stir in about 2 tablespoons of the cream to form a thick paste (this will dissolve the cocoa powder).

Then add the rest of the cream and beat just until stiff peaks form.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Makes about 2 cups (480 ml) whipped cream.

Drain the cherries and reserve about half of the syrup. Lightly mash the cherries with a fork or potato masher.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1-1/2 to 2 cups of icing/ confectioners sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the cream cheese and until smooth and fluffy gradually add the cocoa poster and icing sugar until the frosting is thick and smooth.

Add the vanilla extract. Add 1 tsp of milk or icing suagr if mixture is too thick or thin.

To assemble

Place a layer of the chocolate cake on a 9-inch cake board. Brush the cake layer with the reserved cherry syrup.

Spread a thin layer of chocolate whipped cream and generously place the drained and lightly mashed cherries on top.

Place another cake layer on top and press lightly. Repeat with the cherry syrup, whipped cream and cherries.

Place the last cake layer on top. Crumb coat the cake with the remained chocolate whipped cream. Give it only a very thin layer of frosting just to seal in the crumbs and let the rose frosting stick to the cake. Chill for at least 1 hour, or until the whipped cream sets.

Place the chocolate cream cheese frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.

Placing the piping bag vertically to the surface of the cake, starting from the bottom, pipe circles from the inside spiralling outwards. Pipe a row of roses, then pipe another row on top in between the roses.

Continue piping roses until you cover the entire surface of the cake. Let chill to set the frosting and serve.

A stunning 3-layer cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and cherries. I've been wanting to share this recipe with you for ages. Unf...