So, this blog is a special one. It’s my one year birthday of my blog and I hit 2000 followers on Instagram this week. I remember coming back to uni last year after Christmas and saying I wanted to take my bakes more seriously and document them somewhere I could look back on them. A blog seemed like the perfect way and with some help from my housemate, we have this blog. I love any excuse for cake and I rarely make cakes for myself but I thought why not. I’ve bought a nice journal to plan my bakes and after some thought I went with this idea. For once I don’t really have many complaints about my bakes and I’m normally so critical, this time I can see how far I’ve come so I can only be happy, a story I’ll share further on. Basically the one thing I want to take away from this past year along with my increased passion for baking is a vital lesson in perseverance.
For this cake, I learnt my lesson from my housemates cake last year when it was so difficult to decorate the cake without a turntable, so this time I ordered a set. I think I spent £9 on a turntable and smoothers that came in a set, just saying I think it’s one of the best things I’ve bought baking wise so far at uni. I’m so excited to use it for bakes I’ve got coming up, I know it made my life so much easier this time. I sat and planned this cake and could visualise how I wanted it to look. I used the 8inch deep tin I bought for the Christmas cake. I made two cakes and obviously used the same ingredients for each one. I measured 175g self raising flour, sugar, butter, 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon of baking powder to a bowl. I then added some vanilla extract and mixed it together. I greased the tin and added the batter, baking the cake for 35minutes at 180 degrees. I was slowed down in making my cake by having to wait for the cake I just made to cool. Before I took the cake out of the tin I let it cool slightly, whilst this was happening I made my second cake mix. Washing the tin and greasing it again it was time to bake the second cake. Both cakes baked pretty well, I let them cool completely before I started to decorate them.
Whilst they were cooling I moved on to the decoration. I did make some purple meringue kisses but after they cooled I didn’t fancy putting them on the cake. Ages ago I bought a succulent silicone mould and I thought it would look really cool for this cake. I went for a purple theme because it’s quite a prominent colour on my website. I melted two bars of white chocolate and added some mauve and plum pink colouring to half the white chocolate. I alternated drizzling each colour in the mould keeping some just purple and using a toothpick to create a random pattern. I actually loved how they turned out when they set and will definitely be using them in the future.
Now the main thing I’m proud of about this cake the buttercream. So I’ve always wanted to do Swiss Meringue buttercream and the past two times I’ve done it hasn’t worked and I’ve just given up. However this time I persevered and it actually worked. Using some advice from a friend it actually worked. I started by wiping down my metal bowl and whisk with some vinegar. I added 305g egg whites into my metal bowl and 600g granulated sugar. Making sure not to get any yolks in. Any grease or yolks and the buttercream just won’t work. With about an inch of water in a pan gently simmering I placed the metal bowl on top and whisked until the sugar was dissolved. Constantly whisk and you can check the sugar is dissolved by rubbing some between your fingers. It will be very hot to touch. It’s so much easier to use a stand mixer I only have a hand mixer at uni. Just a warning it’s not a quick thing to do in this case. I used the hand mix until the bowl was completely cool which took around 20 minutes. I had already taken the butter out of the fridge so it wasn’t too soft or hard. I added 510g unsalted butter 1 cube at a time. It seemed to take ages for it to come together and for about 20 minutes it was very runny. I was convinced I had done something wrong, just as I was about to start thinking about Plan B, it started to thicken. Using the hand mix for 5 minutes later. I was honestly so happy with how it turned out and it was the part I was most worried about. I added a touch of salt and some vanilla essence.
Once I had the buttercream, I was ready to decorate. I filled the cake with some cherry jam and some of the buttercream. The two cakes had a really good height. I did a crumb coat using the buttercream which was so smooth by the way. I then put it in the fridge to about 10mintues just to harden. I divided the remaining mix into 3 bowls leaving one plain and added some purple and pink to the other bowls. I loved the pastel colour look of the cake and it reminded me of Spring colours. I started piping some purple buttercream for two layers at the bottom of the cake and did the same with the pink and covered the rest of the cake in the white colour. I used a smoother and started smoothing the buttercream so it was a nice layer. This was easily one of the smoothest cakes I’ve ever done and I just love the consistency of the buttercream. In the areas that weren’t smooth I added the colour that was missing. With the turntable it was so much quicker than last time. Before I put any decorations on, I just admired the cake with the colours and was already happy. With the remaining buttercream I added all three colours together and piped on top of the cake. I used some mini eggs for the colour and who doesn’t love mini eggs. I used my white chocolate decorations and put them one half and then coming down the front. I left one half of the cake pretty clear because I wanted to put a sparkler on top to celebrate.
It’s safe to say that I took a lot of photos of this cake. I took some videos and added a sparkler. There is so much about this cake that I love and I wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate my blog birthday with anything else. It also made my week hitting 2000 followers on Instagram this week just before my year, which was the perfect present. I can’t wait to see what bakes I make this year turn out like. I hope you have a lovely week and enjoy the blog.
Lots of love,
Hannah x
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