MY GO-TO VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

I know some people are funny about their recipes, but I don't have time for that. There are so many adaptations of buttercream from the Masters and our grandmothers, why not share the love.

My Go-to Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup)

1 stick of salted butter (1/2 cup)

1 cup shortening

1 -1/2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

4- 6 cups of Confectioners Sugar (depending on desired crust and sweetness)

4 Tablespoons Heavy Cream (*milk can be substituted)

Directions:
Cream butter for 2-3 minutes. Add shortening. Cream both for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and almond extract. Mix for 1 minute. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time. Mix for 2 minutes. Add heavy cream or milk, mix for 5-7 minutes till desired thickness. Icing will also get whiter the longer you mix it. 

Frosts 24 cupcakes / 4- 7” inch cakes or / 3- 8-9”inch cakes -

*Amount is approximate and will depend on how much icing you use to pipe or crumb coat. I always make a little extra.

*This recipe is a variation of the Wilton Crusting Recipe and my grandmother's :)

THROWBACK! MY 1ST ROSETTE CAKE - DON'T LAUGH

Every aspiring Baker has that 1st cake that had that potential  wow factor. When you look back at it after you've been baking a while,  you cringe a little.  Yeh, me too. 

Christmas 2012. The first time I challenged myself to attempt a cake that I had loved. I saw a neopolitan cake on Pinterest and I was determined to make this cake. 

At that time there were no video tutorials for it, just written instructions on how to make the cake. It was made with 2 different  box cake mixes, but the frosting was homemade. 

I bought french vanilla and chocolate cake mix. Strawberry preserves was added to the vanilla for color and flavor.  I made 3 batches of flavored buttercream. But it wasn't enough. I underestimated how much I would need because I had to ice the cake and add rosettes.  

Here's the crazy part. I was in a situation where I had leftover chocolate batter, so I opted to make cupcakes with it. Great! So here is how I ran out of frosting...I iced the cupcakes FIRST!!  Why? To get that task out of the way. It was hot in my kitchen,  and I had to keep putting the cake in the fridge so the icing wouldn't melt. I was trying to kill time by icing the cupcakes, but it left me with not enough vanilla frosting for the top of the cake. Oy Vey! 

So after reading this, I'm sure you wanna see what my bald neopolitan cake looks like? Well, here you go. Don't laugh. 

*The pic is kinda grainy as HD quality wasn't happening on my cell

But you see what I mean. 

MY FIRST BIRTHDAY CAKE!

I've always wanted to do one of those fancy drum style cakes. I've seen Bakers from all over the world create these beautiful masterpieces that are personalized with cake lover's favorite things. Donuts, candy, cookies, toys, you name it. I watched countless tutorials on how to create this thing of beauty.

They make it look so easy. RIGHT? a few layers of cake, icing, smooth out the sides and pour the drip on top. That's it? Easy Peasy.  Since my family knows that I am on this cake making journey, I got a recent request to do one of these cakes. Why Not? Here was the challenge, as I like to put it.

Cake: vanilla or white
Frosting: white buttercream
Filling: vanilla buttercream with fresh strawberries
Garnish: chocolate ganache drip with fresh strawberries in whip cream.

Easy Enough. I went shopping for all of the ingredients. By the way...the birthday girl has a favorite boxed cake mix, as she is not a fan of cake from scratch. REALLY? I believe people don't know what they like sometimes.  So cake flour, baking powder, and all the other good stuff, not needed. I figured that there had to be a way that I could make this cake to taste like homemade, maybe a little denser.

Over 14 million results on the internet. Not so unheard of Huh? How do I choose? I went to my trusty online pals on some of my cake making sites and asked? How do you make boxed cake taste like homemade? After explaining a few dozen times to some box cake mix naysayers, that it is the person's request for this cake, someone finally gave me a recipe that I found appealing.

Add a few ingredients. Doctor it up a bit. And you are good to go. More eggs, butter, milk, and a few more ingredients. I checked on Pinterest and that was pretty much the standard recipe for a more homemade taste from the box. So I was good to go.

I prepared the strawberries first. I  washed them and dipped them in a little sugar and let them rest because they were awfully bitter. Sometimes, these supermarkets need to test their fruit.  Talk about skimping on the quality control. These strawberries were not sweet, some of them were mushy in between. I just did what I thought was necessary. It probably was wrong but what the hell.

After baking my 4, count 'em 4, cake layers. I decided to make my icing. Butter, sugar, shortening, and vanilla. When people say once you make homemade icing you never go back to the can stuff, they weren't kidding. Holy Moly! Buttercream is God! I mean Good. Once my cake cooled, I did what they call the crumb coat. A light layer of frosting that will go underneath a bigger layer of frosting to minimize cake crumbs. I chilled the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes and proceeded to my second coat. When I tell you I ate a can's worth of frosting this day. I iced the final layer and attempted to do the whole scraping the cake till smooth thing, but every time I made a smoothing pass on the cake, the frosting would come off in one spot.  It took me forever to get that frosting smooth and even on all sides, and it still wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. But I did the best that I could with a cake smoothing skill level of 1.  I then put the cake back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

I prepared my whip cream with heavy cream, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla. I put that in a piping bag and put it in the fridge until I was ready to add my strawberries and chocolate. I melted some Wilton candy melts in the microwave with a little heavy cream, and guess what? it worked. Melty chocolate galore! 

I made GANACHE!

I poured the ganache in a drip bottle, trying to be fancy. Made a doggone mess while doing it. But I forgot a step. It needed to cool a bit. Why did I think if it cooled it would harden? Why would I believe all the other bakers who said cool it down a few minutes before pouring?

Because I'm Stephanie!

And Stephanie has to learn the hard way. So here I go pouring that hot stuff all over the top of that cake, mind you, I began pouring from the middle...thinking the drip would travel. Nope. It poured out slowly so I had to help it get down the sides with a spatula. However, it poured down more like lava, and less like a drip. It still looked okay, but it lacked that execution of a perfect drip that I admire.

Anyway, I dropped a few whip cream dollops on the top and sides of the cake and placed the strawberries in them. The strawberries tasted much better after dipping them in sugar. I was finally done.


THE RESULT:

FINAL OUTCOME! 
THE BIRTHDAY GIRL WAS VERRRY HAPPY :)
GO ME! 

READ ABOUT MY GREAT CUPCAKE DISASTER!

I ruined chocolate cupcakes. Yes, me. I did it. I can't even tell you the level of disappointment I experienced after throwing away a BAG of fully decorated chocolate cupcakes. Since this blog is new to the world. I wrote about it on my Shaken Baken Blog.  Check it out, it's unreal. 

WELCOME TO THE CAKERY BEE!

You heard of a spelling bee? 

Well...this is the cakery bee.

It is a self imposed challenge of my creativity and culinary skills to make the awesomest cakes I've seen from fellow bakers. I am self taught. I've been baking for over 25 years. And I am ready to take on the most difficult challenge as a home baker....myself. 

bzzzzz.....