Anker MagSafe Charger Compatible, Anker MagGo 3in1 Charging Station, Qi2 Certified 15W Wireless Charger Stand, Apple Watch Charger, for iPhone 15/14, AirPods, Apple Watch S9 40W USBC Charger Included
$109.99 (as of April 1, 2024 20:47 GMT +00:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)“They say it’s your birthday!!!” I always go to this Beatles’ favorite for any birthday celebration and think I’m just a tad boring, so I looked up what the top 10 classic rock birthday songs might be and found this interesting list here. Well, I’ve listened to all of them and the Beatles’ song wins hands down, in my opinion.
But, enough of that. Today, I wanted to create a special birthday cake for a special person – the reason behind this blog in the first place; my daughter-in-law, Lauren. Lauren has celiac disease and since we were lucky enough to have her join our family by marrying my son, I’ve been working at re-creating my library of favorite recipes so that Lauren (and everyone else) can enjoy them as much as I do. So, happy birthday, special girl. Hope you enjoy this creation and have a ‘fabulous’ birthday. So sorry you can only enjoy it through pictures, but I’ll make it up to you.
From the pink cake and buttercream to the lovely cherry blossoms, this cake makes me think of spring. It could be all those years in the north when we waited for the Cherry Blossom Festival to be celebrated in Washington, D.C. That’s when you knew the weather was taking a beautiful turn for the better. And, that’s what I wanted to capture here. Look at those lovely, lovely layers of light pink cake with that raspberry champagne buttercream….
Along with my rendition of cherry blossoms made out of fondant + tylose powder (which helps the fondant dry). And, I didn’t provide detailed directions on how to make fondant flowers or how to cover a cake with fondant. If there’s interest, I’ll do a tutorial on just that.
I was all over the place when painting the flowers. Couldn’t quite decide what I wanted. But, thank goodness, it’s all about the “Big Picture,” not the small individual pieces.
I love the light gray with the pink fondant and like the way this one came together.
And, you don’t need to do any elaborate decorations. This delicious and beautiful cake, that you just can’t stop eating, stands on its own with the simplest icing job.
Buon Appetito!
Yields 2
Pretty in Pink – Pink Champagne cake filled with Raspberry Champagne Buttercream
20 minPrep Time
25 minCook Time
45 minTotal Time
Ingredients
- Cake
- 3 cups (13.5 ounces) Gluten Free Farina All Purpose Flour
- 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 Tablespoon (.5 ounces) Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (.1 ounce) salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups (10.7 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (8 ounces) pink champagne, flat
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pink food coloring – enough to make mixture a light pink
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces) Whole Milk Do not combine with champagne because it will curdle.
- 1 cup (8 ounces) butter, unsalted, cut into 1 Tablespoon pieces, softened
- 6 egg whites, room temperature preferred
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup (3.6 ounces) granulated sugar
- Raspberry Champagne Buttercream
- 2 cups (1 pound) Butter, unsalted, softened
- 8 cups (2 pounds) Confectioner’s Sugar
- 4 Tablespoons (2 ounces) pink champagne, flat
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (6 ounces) raspberry jam, seedless
Instructions
- Cake
- Prepare pans by greasing sides and bottom with coconut oil and line with parchment circles.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Combine flour, xanthan, baking powder, salt and 1 and 1/2 cups sugar in bowl of electric mixer.
- In measuring cup, combine champagne, vanilla and food color (You could choose to wait until mix is made and then color to your liking. Probably a safer approach.)
- Measure out milk, but do not combine with champagne mixture or it will curdle.
- Add softened butter to dries. Mix 1 minute.
- Add milk and champagne mixture to dries/butter mix and mix on low until combined. Raise to medium speed and mix 1 minute. Move to another bowl.
- Wash bowl of electric mixer making sure it’s free of fat residues.
- Whip egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
- Add sugar and beat on high to stiff peaks. Be careful not to overwhip whites to dry.
- Add one-third of whipped whites to cake mixture and mix by hand to combine.
- Add remaining whites and fold in gently just until combined.
- Divide evenly into 2 prepared 9″ pans.
- Bake 350F for 20 to 25 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in the middle.
- For this cake, I used 2 – 6″ pans with 12.5 ounces of batter and an 8″ pan with 20 ounces of batter.
- Remove pans from oven and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn out onto cardboard cake circle and let cool before icing. I personally prefer to wrap and freeze my cakes for a denser crumb before decorating. Be sure to thaw the cake before icing or the cake will expand when it warms up and the icing will crack.
- Raspberry Champagne Buttercream
- Place butter in bowl of electric mixer and cream butter.
- Add jam and mix until combined.
- Add confectioner’s sugar alternately with champagne until mixture is moistened. Scrape down bowl.
- Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes to aerate mixture.
- Fill, ice and decorate cake as desired. See post for suggestions.
few pics to show the different stages:
I always line my pans with parchment. Grease the sides and the bottom rim of the pan with coconut oil or shortening. I cut the parchment circles by folding parchment in half and in half again, placing the point of the parchment at the middle of the pan and cut around the outside of the pan.
You want to make sure that the parchment doesn’t go up the sides of the pan. That’s when the batter sticks in the parchment and it makes a mess of your cake.
This is exactly how you want your whites whipped. Be careful not to overwhip. The sugar and cream of tartar help to prevent this, but if you work very hard at it, you can overwhip and the whites will either be too stiff, which makes it difficult to fold in without deflating everything, or they will be too dry.
I brush all my cake layers with a simple syrup. For this one, I used plain, but you can flavor the simple syrup to suit the cake. You can find the recipe here.
Here are the cake layers iced up and waiting for the fondant.
The cake is covered with fondant, stacked and the vines are applied. I always get caught up in the cake being absolutely perfect, but, then it gets covered with a gazillion flowers (or something else) and you don’t see all the crazy mistakes.
And, then the flowers. Wallah!!
And the inside – in case you haven’t seen enough!!
