Saturday, November 16, 2024

Ring of Roses Strawberry Layer Cake



It's just been our birthday time of the year when we are lucky enough to celebrate a birthday every month, and no matter what ever else happens in life or how old we are, Birthday Cake is always a must.

Bubble's birthday is the first off the rank and she chose strawberry cake which has been a family favourite since as long as I can remember. It is a pretty pink cake flavoured and coloured using jelly crystals (jell-o box) which makes for a consistent cake all year round. My family recipe has had a few tweaks over the years so I've included the current recipe below.

The birthday girl decreed only a small amount of frosting. I decorated simply by covering with Italian Meringue buttercream (recipe below), adding some texture with varying shades of contrasting buttercream and edible gold and added a ring of big sweeping rose swirls on top using a 1M tip alternating between pink and white and then with random piped leaves. The pink colour is sugar flair dusky pink/wine and the green is sugar flair eucalyptus. Italian Meringue buttercream uses whipped egg whites and a sugar syrup and takes a bit more work than simple American buttercream. I like to use it as it is lighter and less sweet to my taste. 


To give the cake a bit of a lift I added pistachio cream between each layer, which to be honest, although nice was not really worth the effort (**keep your eyes out for a pistachio ganache recipe I have coming up which will be worth the wait). The pistachio cream was from Costco but seriously you can just leave it out and the cake will be just as lovely.



If you want to see another version of this strawberry cake decorated in a different way check out this sweet strawberry candy girl cake here on my blog. 

xx

Linda  

Pretty rose swirl strawberry cake - makes a 6 inch 3 layer cake

- 3 x 6" strawberry cakes (see recipe below)

- 1 x batch Italian Meringue buttercream (see recipe below)

- 1 cup Pistachio cream (optional) warmed in microwave just for a short time until it easily is spreadable but not hot.

Assembly Instructions

You can make this cake 2 or 3 days before you serve. Bake the cake, cool and wrap in plastic wrap. I trim the brown edges off this cake but you don't need to, I do it because I like the look of the sliced cake. You will however need to trim off any domed top to make 3 cakes approximately the same height.

-Place the bottom layer onto a 6"cake board (or straight onto a plate or stand if you are not using the cake board). 

-Pop a small dollop of buttercream under the cake to secure it in place and then using an offset spatula spread a layer of buttercream over the top. 

-Put some buttercream into a piping bag wth a large round tip and pipe a dam around the edge of the cake (see picture below). Spoon in half the pistachio cream and pop into fridge to chill until buttercream is firm. 

- Remove from fridge and top with a thin layer of buttercream to seal the pistachio cream. Add the next layer and repeat the above steps of spreading a layer of buttercream, piping a dam,  adding the pistachio cream and placing in fridge to chill again.

- Remove from fridge, top with a thin layer of buttercream to seal the pistachio cream, add the final cake layer and cover with a thin crumb coat, smoothing the sides and top. Place into fridge to chill until buttercream is firm to touch.

- Reserve around 1 1/2 cups plain white buttercream and colour the remainder in pink.

- smooth the pink buttercream over the cake in a thin layer, if you can't get it perfect do not stress, this cake has an imperfect textured look to it. If you have a cake turntable and a cake scraper it is easier to achieve a smooth finish, but if not use a knife or offset spatula to the best of your ability. I have been known to use a clean plastic ruler in a pinch. 

- Put the remaining pink and the white buttercream into seperate piping bags with a 1M tip and pipe the roses. If you look at my cake closely you will notice that there are only 3 pink swirls and 5 white swirls, with some pink stars piped in-between. The key here is to do what you want, it's your cake be creative. I also piped a border around the bottom with a small star tip. Then I coloured a small amount of the remaining white buttercream green (eucalypt) and piped the leaves. Pop into fridge to chill until firm.

I wanted a rustic casual look and added some of the left over buttercream to the sides randomly and smoothed it in with an offset spatula. Finally after another quick chill I added some edible gold leaf.


Sweet Strawberry Layer Cake (divide the batter into 3 x 6" pans to make a 4" high filled cake)
The jelly (jello) used in this recipe is the dry sugar crystals in the packet. If cake flour is not available use 310g (11 oz) plain (all purpose) flour and add 40g (1 3/8 oz)of cornflour (corn starch) instead.
*Note I like to use weight instead of cup measurements as standard cup sizes are not the same in USA and Australia.

350g (12 3/8oz) cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
200g (7oz) sugar
1 packet strawberry jelly crystals (jell-o) 85g (3oz approx)
225g (8 oz) unsalted butter at room temperature
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
240ml (8 1/2oz) full fat milk
135g (4 3/4oz) no fat greek yogurt 

Preheat oven to 170 C  (340 F) fan forced. Line the base and sides of 3 x 15cm (6") tins or 2 x 20cm 8" tins.

Sift the flour and baking powder and set aside until needed.

In the bowl of a large mixer at high speed cream together the butter, sugar and jelly (jello) crystals until light and fluffy.

Reduce speed to low and add the vanilla and then eggs one at a time mixing until combined and scraping down the sides as required.

Add 1/3rd of the flour mixture, mix at low speed until just combined scraping down sides as required. Add 1/2 the milk and mix until combined and then another 1/3rd of the flour mixture once again mixing and scraping down the sides.

Add the remaining milk and all of the yogurt and mix until combined and then the final third of flour making sure the sides and bottom of bowl have been scraped down and no lumps of flour are remaining.

Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared tins.

Bake until the cake is cooked all the way through and a skewer inserted comes out dry approximately 45 minutes.


Italian Meringue Butter cream This batch will make enough to fill and cover the cake and extra to decorate with buttercream flowers as in the example.

Make sure your bowl and mixer are clean to whip egg whites. I use a stand mixer with a pouring shield to make this butter cream, the sugar syrup is very hot, make sure you take appropriate safety precautions when pouring the hot sugar syrup mixture. Not suitable for young children to make.

300g white sugar (12oz)
75g (2 3/4oz) water
5 egg whites
450g (1 pound - 4 sticks) unsalted butter cut into smallish cubes
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place sugar and water into saucepan over high heat and bring to boil. Conintue to  heat until the sugar syrup mixture reaches 115 C (240F). Brush down the the sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush as required to stop sugar crystals from forming.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer (make sure the bowl is quite large). When the sugar syrup reaches 110C (210F) start to whip the egg whites at high speed.

Once the sugar syrup reaches 115C (240 F) carefully pour the syrup into the whipped egg whites whilst the mixer is still beating on high.

Continue to beat until the egg and sugar mixture cooled to room temperature (or the bowl feels cool to touch) and then start to add a few cubes of butter at a time. Add the vanilla.

The mixture may become quite liquid, but continue to beat until it thickens and all the butter is evenly distributed. If necessary pop the mixing bowl into the fridge to cool down a little then continue to mix.


I love when people share my blog ideas and give credit. All posts contain original ideas, photography and recipes by Linda McCubbin unless otherwise credited. Please feel free to link back to my blog for non commercial purposes.

Monday, October 24, 2022

Raspberry Heart Linzer cookies


One of the things about owning a cafe was I rarely found enough time to blog or develop new recipes. Once customers found something they liked, I would be churning out the same cookies day after day. I can't call it a problem though as these Linzer cookies were always super popular and often sold out.

The cookies are lovely, buttery but still manage to be light with a hint of vanilla and cinnamon and once filled are not overly sweet and the perfect treat to have with afternoon coffee or tea. 

At the cafe they were filled with raspberry jam or lemon curd (raspberry was the biggest seller) and at Christmas we would change the heart cut out to a mini Christmas tree.

The cookie recipe calls for Almond Meal which is simply ground almonds. I actually often buy my almond meal from Costco and find it to be of good quality, I prefer the one with the skins removed but if you can only find ground almond still with their skin on the recipe would still work.


If you like you can freeze the dough in smaller batches before baking if you like, although I did scale my recipe back for you to make a smaller batch than I normally would.

The cookies can be stored for a few days, but I find them best if stored without the jam filling and then filled not long before you plan on eating them.

*I usually pop the unused egg whites into a ziplock bag in the freezer to use later to make meringue or macarons.

The dough is quite buttery so make sure you use the kitchen bench and rolling pin well with flour. I use an offset metal spatula to lift the cookies onto my baking tray.


I hope you enjoy these as much as my family and friends do.

xx

Linda

Linzer Cookie Recipe makes 16-18 double cookies filled with jam (7cm or 2 3/4")

170g unsalted butter (6oz) 1 1/2 sticks

100g caster sugar (3 1/2 oz)

1tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 egg yolk

160g plain flour (5 5/8 oz)

75g ground almond meal (2 5/8 oz)

pinch salt

To finish

around 1/2 cup raspberry jam 

icing sugar (powdered sugar) for dusting 

Mix butter, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon on low until combined with an electric mixer (I use a stand mixer) then increase speed to high and cream until light and fluffy.

reduce speed of mixer to medium low and mix in egg yolk until combined. Scrap down the sides with a spatula as needed.

At low speed mix in the flour, almond meal and salt and mix until combined.

Put some plastic wrap on the counter, tip the cookie dough onto the plastic, wrap securely and pop in the refrigerator until it's firm enough to work with. 


Dust counter and rolling pin with flour, cut away 1/4 of the dough and roll out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles and place on baking tray. 

Try cutters like this from Amazon (link to product)

On half of the circles cut out/remove a smaller heart shape in the centre as per the picture.

Bake at 160 C for 12-15 mins or until just turning golden. Allow to cool on trays.

Split the cooked and cooled cookies into 2 lots, the whole round cookies and the cookies with hearts cut out. Using a sieve, dust icing sugar (powdered sugar) onto the heart cut out cookies.


Place the whole circle cookies so the bottoms are facing up (the side that was on the bottom during cooking). Heat the jam in the microwave and then spoon 1/2 to 1 tsp jam on each round cookie and spread almost to the edge with a knife or spatula. Press the sugar dusted heart cookie on top of the jam.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.





Monday, October 17, 2022

Walnut caramel coffee slice, new beginnings and learning to breathe

Wow what happened there, I took a little break to run a cafe, blinked and there went 6 years. For real that just flew by.

Note to self, live every moment. I know you all learnt this a few years ago when COVID happened and everything shut down. But that's not what happened to me. Because I owned a cafe in Australia so I got up every single day put on a mask and went to work to keep that cafe running, do the admin, pay the staff so that hopefully there was still a cafe at the end of it all.

And then after 2 years came the end of restrictions, which was soul destroying because there was no way for the me to keep the cafe going.

Anyhoo I learnt a long time ago that endings are really just beginnings and I'm grateful for all the lessons I learnt, skills I gained and all the wonderful friends I made.

So I'm taking a little bit of time at the moment to focus on my health and my family. I'm working in a low stress job, focusing on some yoga training and learning to breath again.

And I'm blogging, because it's something I've always loved. But whoa everything's changed (but me) and it's taking me a little while to learn how to do everything.

So......like I said I owned a cafe in the suburb where I grew up. It was pretty old school and the people that came there were the sweetest bunch of people. It used to feel like inviting my friends over to my breakfast table, it wasn't fancy and everyone knew everyone else.

This is one of the cafe OG recipes, a simple old fashioned condensed milk 'caramel' slice. The staff used to bake this on site in the oven. We served it topped it with some walnuts but it's just as lovely plain if you prefer or drizzled with a little chocolate.

It's almost the opposite to the current crazes of fancy big cookie recipes out at the moment, it's so simple, you can eat a piece and still fit in your lunch. Plus it's perfect to freeze and you can slice it up after baking, freeze individual slices and pull out a piece to have for your afternoon tea or pop in your lunch bag.

xx Linda

Walnut Caramel Slice (makes 12 pieces)

Base

1 cup self raising flour

1 cup desiccate coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

125g melted unsalted butter (4 oz)

Caramel Layer

1 tin condensed milk

2 Tbsp golden syrup (US 2 TBSP plus 2 Tsp)

25g unsalted butter (7/8 oz)

Topping

1 cup chopped walnuts *I used 12 halves, you can substitute with pecans or drizzled chocolate


- grease (I lightly spray oil) and line a shallow rectangle baking tin (mine was27.5cm X 17.5cm X 3.5cm or 11" X 7" X 1.5 ") with baking paper and preheat oven to 180 C (355 F).

This is a link to the pan I used on Amazon

- pop the flour, coconut, brown sugar and melted butter into a bowl and mix together well to combine.

- press the mixture down evenly into the prepared baking tin.

- place in middle of preheated oven and bake for 10 - 12 mins until it's golden brown.

- remove from oven and while it's cooling make the caramel (don't turn the oven off you still need it). *note if you don't let the base layer cool a little bit at this stage the condensed milk caramel layer will sink into it and not spread as well.

Make the caramel layer 

- place condensed milk, golden syrup and butter into a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 1 minute, mix well. 

-Continue to microwave for 30 second bursts until a light golden colour and the mixture has thickened a little like the picture below. Don't go too far it's still got to cook for a little bit in the oven. Usually a total of 2 mins (thats 4 X 30 second bursts).


Spread the mixture evenly over the bottom of the cooked and slightly cooled base and bake for a further 10 -12 minutes the edges will bubble and start to turn brown. See picture of the finished slices to see what it should look like.

Remove from oven, if you are topping with walnuts gently sprinkle onto the top ensuring you do not touch the hot caramel

Allow to cool for a few hours until the caramel is set (you can place in the fridge for a few hours to speed the process up)

Cut into 12 pieces (4 along the long side and 3 on the short). Keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge. 

This slice can be frozen whole wrapped in plastic and placed in an airtight container for 1 month. Or sliced and wrapped into individual pieces in an airtight container. Just take out what you need from the freezer and allow to defrost in the fridge.