Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A White Cake

I have been investing in quite a number of baking books, written by local bakers and foreign bakers. The latter were mostly bought online via Amazon. In fact, I have just placed orders for a couple more books that will be arriving in two to three weeks' time. I can't wait to lay my hands on them. I would spend hours flipping the pages, drooling over the lovely pictures and bookmarking it. Sigh! However, I have yet to try out all that have been bookmarked which is evident by the many colourful flapping post-its!

About three weeks ago, I was flipping through my baking books deciding what to bake for my elder daughter's birthday. I wanted to try out something different because I was tired of repeating my cakes.
I came across a rather attractive picture of a 'celebration' cake'(termed by Dorie Greenspan from "Baking"). It is a cake that is white with a tight crumb(no fear of crumbly cake falling apart during assembling). I shan't go into boring details but get down to business!

 Ingredients:
For the cake:
1½ cups caster sugar (I reduced to 1¼ cups)
2 teaspoons lemon zest ( I used 3 teaspoons) 
 

4 large egg whites
1¼ cups buttermilk

1 stick(113.4g)  unsalted butter, at room temperatur
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract (I used Nielsen Massey's)

2¼ cups cake flour, sifted with baking powder and salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
 ½ teaspoon salt

1. Whisk egg whites and buttermilk until it foams. Set aside.
2. Place sugar and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and rub with fingers to mix well.
3. Add butter and cream at medium speed till light and fluffy and add in vanilla extract.
4. Add one-third of flour and beat at medium speed to mix and then add half of the egg mixture.
5. Alternate flour with egg mixture and end with flour. Beat to ensure the batter is thoroughly mixed.
6. Divide batter into greased and lined 9-inch / 23-cm round tins and bake in preheated oven 170deg C for 30 to 35 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.
7. Remove cake and cool on rack.

For the Swiss meringue buttercream:
1 cup sugar (I used ½ cup)
4 large egg whites
3 sticks(340g) unsalted butter, at roomtemperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 ½ cup seedless raspberry jam, warmed and stirred, for sandwiching between cake layers
1 ½ cup sweetened grated coconut, for coating the side of cake and topping

1. Put egg whites and sugar in a heatproof mixing bowl and place it over a pot of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture feels hot to touch. It takes about 3 minutes. The sugar should have dissolved and the mixture looks lke shiny marshmallow.
2. Remove from heat and whisk at medium speed until mixture is cool. It takes about 5 minutes.
3.Change whisk to paddle and add a few cubed butter at a time and cream till thick and smooth.
4.Gradually beat in lemon juice and then vaanilla extract.
5. Cover the surface of buttercream with clingwrap. Set aside.

To assemble cake:

1. Slice each cake into half horizontally (optional).
2. Spread a layer of raspberry jam and then a layer of buttercream on each cake layer.
3. Sandwich the cake layers and cover the cake with buttercream and coat the sides and top with grated coconut. 








This post is linked to  Cook-Your-Books #3 at   http://mycookinggallery.blogspot.com/2013/08/cook-your-books-3.html

15 comments:

  1. That is a beautiful cake! Now, arent't you glad you baked it? If you like, you can link up with Cook Your Books 3 by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours at http://mycookinggallery.blogspot.com/2013/08/cook-your-books-3.html

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  3. What a beautiful cake! Too pretty to eat!

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  4. Hi Judy,
    That is one beautiful cake! And it looks delicious. I love Dorie's recipes. I'm glad Phong Hong informed you about Cook-Your-Books linking.
    I know how you must be feeling waiting for the books to arrive! I would be very impatient!! Haha!
    Thank you for linking! Hope to see you again in CYB!
    Happy Belated Birthday to your daughter!

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  5. Hi Ann,
    Thank!

    Hi Joyce,
    Thanks for dropping by. Happy to link up!

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  6. Hi Judy,

    This is one of my favourite book for baking and I can see the successful factors in your cake :D

    Zoe

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    1. Hi Zoe,
      Yup! Bookmarked many pages in this book!

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  7. Your decorating is so neat, I can never do frosting so neatly! Very gorgeous!

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  8. Hi Jeannie,
    Thanks! Getting rusty in icing skills. Hardly do iced cakes!

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  9. I was intrigued by the name of the cake.... gosh you did a good job with the decor. Doubt I can master it, my hands will shake!

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  10. Hi Cheah!,
    Thanks! I am sure you can do as well if not better!

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  11. What is the texture? Moist? Love the frosted cake.

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  12. Hi Edith,
    It's moist but quite dense, not hard at all. It could be softer if the method of mixing the ingredients is different. Anyway, the cake is tasty. I will try again, using my method. :)

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