Happy Friday!
Harlan and I are coming up on 6 years of marriage next week, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I want to make a fun cake to celebrate. For years I've enjoyed watching cake shows on TV like Ace of Cakes, The Cake Boss, and even the cake challenges on TLC. However, once you see how professional cake decorators make these amazing cakes, it's discouraging when you try it at home and fall VERY short.
For example, wouldn't it be amazing if I could whip this up:
In a dream world, I would love to become a pastry chef. I even looked into it briefly and discovered it costs over 30K for the one year program in Austin. I don't think so. My sister and I have talked about taking some classes, so I need to buckle down and just do it! Last summer, my sister and I made this cake for my sis-in-law's baby shower. Since I'm still learning and am also a perfectionist, it was so stressful!
This time around, I really want to enjoy the experience, so I've been on the hunt for simple recipes with quality ingredients. Baking is a way I show love to others, so my goal is for it to be stress-free and delicious!
Here's what I'm thinking:
For the cake, this vanilla bean cake recipe from Sweetapolita:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks, 341 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature (on counter apprx 20 minutes)
2 2/3 cups (540 g) granulated sugar
9 (275 g) egg whites, at room temperature
4 1/2 cups (630 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons (22 g) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6 g) salt
2 cups (500 mL) buttermilk
1 tablespoon (15 mL) Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste - 4 oz
OR 1 vanilla bean, split & scraped1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter three 8" x 2" round cake pans, line with parchment rounds, and dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until lighter in color and slightly increased in volume, 3 to 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium and add the egg whites gradually, mixing until fully incorporated.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Mix vanilla extract and vanilla paste (or contents of vanilla bean) into buttermilk. Alternate dry ingredients and buttermilk into creamed mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated or finish by hand gently.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. If possible, weigh the batter in each cake pan on a digital kitchen scale to ensure even layers. Smooth with small offset palette knife, and bake for about 30 minutes, rotating once after 20 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick or skewer comes clean.
5. Let pans cool on wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto racks, gently, peeling away parchment rounds. Let cool completely.
For the filling, I'm going to do a strawberry buttercream (Harlan's request), and I'll stick with a classic vanilla almond buttercream to ice the whole cake. Wish me luck!
What I baked this week:
CHERRY TURNOVERS!!!! Other than strawberry shortcake, cherry turnovers rank up there with one of my favorite desserts/breakfast treats/all around amazing, flaky bites to eat. In my hunt for new recipes, I thought I'd try my hand at *pastry dough. As I dug a bit deeper, I found that many pastry chefs actually don't think making your own dough is worth the time and effort, so they all recommend store bought.
*Side note: Do you know how many sticks of butter are in pastry dough? HOLY COW!
So, off to the store I went for pastry dough and cherries. Vanilla Garlic had a delicious recipe for Blackberry Marscarpone Turnovers, so that's what I modeled mine after. I felt so fancy once I saw the results! Don't they look AWESOME? I made some like Vanilla Garlic suggested, and then I decided to make some larger ones. They are *DE-LISH!
*Another side note: I sure hope I don't end up with gestational diabetes...
Pregnancy News:
Next week I'll be 24 weeks pregnant! Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for this baby girl. Her kicks are getting a lot stronger and more frequent, and I've actually seen my belly move! Harlan got to see my belly rock 'n roll last week, and I'll never forget the priceless look on his face. There are no words to describe how grateful I am - I just cannot wait to meet her!
While eating dinner this week, we were surprised by a knock at the door. On our door step was the changing table we registered for! My parents and grandmother surprised us, so Harlan's been hard at work getting it assembled. Things are starting to come together!
Next Week
A guest post by Harlan is coming up! I'll also post a picture of my 6 month baby bump and the finished anniversary cake. Should be lots of fun!
What I'm Thankful For:
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