Saturday, July 2, 2011

Easter Baking


At Easter, I want a spectacular experience for my guests, and after careful consideration I decided to make a strawberry champagne cake. I thought it was perfect for two reasons. The first is a long winter filled with fresh berries. The store shelves complete with lush, ripe berries, and I want! Secondly, I thought the strawberries mixed with champagne, the perfect festive cake to eat, when I saw Prince William and Kate were married princess. Yes, I woke up at 4:00 to see the fun, and yes, I eat strawberry champagne cake in 8 hours! I was planning on having a nice glass of champagne in my pink strawberry flavored cake, but unfortunately I could not so early in the day.

Still, I searched online and found a recipe that looked pretty good. And so I did it by adding my own special touches. I also have a favorite buttercream frosting recipe I always use and I used it for the cake, and added an extra tasty ingredients. There is much debate when it comes to changing a recipe - and what kind of disappointing. I think it's important to keep your liquids into the dry ingredients almost like asking for the recipe. But when it comes to adding fresh fruit, chocolate, nuts, I say knock yourself out! Eyeball, make sure it looks good (smell), and go to town. These little details really great recipe.

For the cake even more special, I decided to ganache and fresh strawberries to add to the center instead of just strawberry buttercream frosting. It's a good idea in theory, but I do not recommend the use of fresh fruit in a cake. I went with the flow outlet is my cake and I had a very sticky puddle on my cake pan. Icing brings in fresh fruit juices. If you plan to use fresh berries (like me) I would recommend a strawberry (or other fruit or berry) sauce. This way you can still fresh ingredients, no sticky mess.

The cake is a hit! My family loved it and my uncle once said that it was his next birthday (what a compliment!) Hans. I think of all the desserts I've made it a fan favorite.

Strawberry champagne cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs

3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

½ cup champagne
½ cup pureed strawberries

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups chopped fresh strawberries

4 egg whites

Butter and sugar until light and smooth. Add egg and mix until completely incorporated.

In a separate bowl combine Sift flour, baking powder and salt. In a bowl, combine juice and champagne. Alternate adding flour mixture into butter mixture and strawberry. Begin and end with flour to a soft cake. Add vanilla. Add the strawberries, mix until just incorporated. Fold half the egg white, fold the other.

I want to grab a pastry bag to fill cupcake tins. Batter should be slightly more than ¾ of the can.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Strawberry buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter
A package (2 pounds) powdered sugar
Stack 1 / 3 cup pureed strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla
chocolate for garnish

Beat butter until light and fluffy. With continuous mixing, add a little powdered sugar (add a bit of strawberry puree, because it is too thick). Then add sugar in small doses until fully mixed with butter. Add rest of strawberry puree and vanilla. If the glaze is still thick, add a little champagne! Add the chocolate curls on top of the frosted cupcake for a crazy deal!

Happy baking!

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