Sweet Strawberry Layer cake

I have such a treat for you this week. I am finally sharing my sweet strawberry layer cake recipe here and yes I don't know why it has taken me so long although perhaps you will forgive me when I tell you I have been tweaking it over the years to come up with the delicious version in the top photo.

Picture by Alyce and Colette Photographers

The secret my dear friends is...........strawberry jelly (jello) crystals which gives the cake both the flavour and the colour in one go.

I have been using it for years as it's such a favourite with the kids.

In fact when I made it for Sweet's recent birthday after not using it for a year or so and The Destroyer was licking the bowl* he said it tasted like berry pancakes and told me that if the finished cake tasted the same it would be the most amazing cake I ever made.

*(I know he shouldn't do that with raw egg but seriously I am only human and he was begging.)

(for this version replace the yogurt with strawberry puree)

The 3rd picture above is of an older version of the cake back when I used to add puree strawberry in place of yogurt, which is still good and I'm telling you just in case you would like to try it out yourself.

The finished cake cuts very well and is quite moist so you can make it a few days ahead and decorate as needed. The only downside is that it has quite a brown hard crust which I think is better removed for decorating if you want the cake to look nice once sliced. But I pretty much do that for all my cakes anyway.

I like to fill this cake with a light vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream which I guess kinda makes it a strawberry and cream layer cake and totally delicious and I have included a recipe at the bottom of the post.When filling I find it best to chill the cake in the fridge for a few minutes between each layer.

I hope you try my strawberry ckae and that it becomes a family favourite for you like it has for me.

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 (jello) 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 (I use Chobani)

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 will probably become quite liquid, but continue to beat until it thickens and all the butter is evenly distributed. May take around 10 minutes.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the Children's cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! Published in the USA in 2011 the book is still available at Amazon and many online bookstores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original ideas, photography and recipes Linda Vandermeer please do not reuse without permission.

My Sweet Candy Girl Birthday cake

Sweet had her 9th birthday and I made this 'My Sweet Candy Girl' birthday cake with gold leaf decorated macarons, hand piped butter cream flowers and musk stick lollies.

In the past we have had quite fancy parties for her and some pretty spectacular cakes, and when I say for her, I really mean for me.

Because it seems to make Sweet happy what she really wants is lots of lollies and candy on a cake.

I know this because a few years back I made quite an elaborate cake that I managed to make look like it was set in a mirror on the wall. It was a carved unicorn head and it took quite a bit of work (CLICK HERE for a free video tutorial on making that unicorn cake). I was quite pleased with myself of course and Sweet did love her party and still talks about it now.

However a few months after that party a girl at school brought in a cake covered with lollies (that's Australian for candy), Sweet told the family at the dinner table in detail how amazing it was.

Pretty much because.......lollies. That's right she is a kid, all it takes to impress her is quite a bit of candy. So this year I decided to stick lots of lollies on the cake, we did compromise with some pretty piped flowers but as they were buttercream and therefore creamy sugar Sweet was totally ok with it.

Musk Stix - an Australian icon

Maybe the best part of all was that Sweet and my son The Destroyer got to join in decorating the cake and put the musk sticks around the edge of the cake.

I think if at this stage I had given Sweet a stack of extra lollies/candy and told her to pour it into the top all the kids would have been happy, but I decided to pipe on some flowers and swirls, pop on a few macarons and then add sixlets and soft sugar pearls.

It ended up being a perfect mix of sweet and pretty, although I did only eat one musk stick despite having quite a few on my slice.

If you can't locate musk sticks you might like to substitute pink chocolate covered pretzels or strawberry pocky sticks.

Later in the week I will be popping up the recipe for the strawberry layer cake which has been a favourite in our household for many years.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the Children's cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! Published in the USA in 2011 the book is still available at Amazon and many online bookstores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original ideas, photography and recipes Linda Vandermeer please do not reuse without permission.

Pinkalicious Macaron Recipe

When I saw these plates online I was smitten. Look at them. Just look they are pretty much the cutest disposable plates I have ever seen.

I don't even like disposable plates, I completely avoid them where ever possible but I had to buy these ones I mean seriously they have pink polkadots and gold spots and then part of them is the sweetest pale pink and no this post is not sponsored by the company.

Anyhoo then I made some macarons to serve on them 'cause they deserved something special.

I picked mine up from Lark Australia.

In the US check out Bash Party Goods who produce the plates.

I did read on Bash Party Goods Instagram page that they had macarons in mind when they created these plates so just to help you out I'll re-share my recipe.

Your welcome

Macaron Shells makes around 40 shells or 20 filled macarons. See below macaron recipe for simple instructions for ganache filling.

190 gram (6 5/8 oz)almond meal (almond flour)
190 gram pure icing sugar (6 5/8 oz powdered sugar)
190 gram granulated sugar (6 5/8 oz)
48 grams water (1 5/8 oz)
140 gram egg whites aged split into 2 lots of 70grams each (5 oz split into 2 lots of 2 1/2oz each)*
food color of choice (I use gel type food color like Wilton)

*ageing egg whites refers to separating the yolks from whites and then leaving the whites to age for a few days. This can be done on the counter if your countries climate permits or in the fridge, wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and then pop a few holes in the top. Alternately you can pop fresh egg whites in the microwave on high for 10 seconds or so - I used the microwave method in this batch pictured.

1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer. Do not over process as the meal can become oily. Sieve into a large bowl. Add colour and 70g (2 1/2 ounce) of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but don’t mix in.

2. Place remaining 70g (2 1/2 ounce) of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

3. Pop granulated sugar and water into saucepan stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C (245 F). Brush down the sides with a pastry brush dipped in water as required to avoid the sugar crystallizing. Once the mixture reaches 115C (240 F) start mixing the egg whites on high. Make sure you have a pouring shield on your mixer, when the sugar syrup reaches 118C (245 F)remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high.

4. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch, around 50C (120 F).

5. Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms. If you run the spatula through the mixture it should form a ribbon that disappears back into the mixture after about 20 seconds.

6. Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip (or just cut the end of a disposable piping bag, that's what I do) and pipe in lines onto parchment lined baking sheets. To make the macarons as even as possible I apply a constant slow pressure to the piping bag and count a few numbers like up to 3 for each one.

Waiting to form skins after piping

7. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin so that the macaron mixture does not stick to your finger when gently touched. If the weather is humid this step may take longer up to 2 hours. I pop on the aircon if it's humid at my house.

8. Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C (285 F). Once ready bake the macaroons for around 13 to 16 minutes depending on size, it may take longer, all ovens are different. If they are baked and you gently push on the side the tops will not move, if the tops do move bake for another minute or 2. Also they should not be browned if they are reduce the heat for the next batch or bake for less time.

9. Once baked remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the parchment onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

10. Once cooled match disks into like sizes and sandwich together using the ganache.

Ganache Recipe
To make ganache melt white chocolate with cream in the microwave and mix gently until combined, use a ration of 3:1, so for example 300 grams (10 1/2 oz) white chocolate to 100 grams (3 1/2 oz) cream, sorry guys I measure as I already have the scales out and I can't be bothered messing up a liquid measuring jug :) Add some gel color and raspberry oil/flavor to taste.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the Children's cookbook Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! Published in the USA in 2011 the book is still available at Amazon and many online bookstores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original ideas, photography and recipes Linda Vandermeer please do not reuse without permission.