Birthday Letter Cake - Butter Cake with Strawberry Infused White Chocolate Ganache

BIRTHDAY LETTER CAKE - BUTTER CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY INFUSED WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

So I am a pretty big Madonna fan, by pretty big I mean, massive. I like to have a small party for her every year. It's a great excuse to pure some wine, get together with my friends and make some baked goods. I made a number of delightful baked goods this year I'll be posting over the next week. I was keen to try a special cake. I thought I'd make a big "M", this means that others can use the recipe and a letter cake of their own for themselves or a loved one. Now I'm not the neatest decorator, but I give it a good go. And I was pretty happy with the result. You can adjust it yourself for whatever letter you need.

This was a standard butter cake but I replaced the vanilla essence for some strawberry essence and just swirled some red food colouring through the batter. The ganache was the real fun. I infused some cream with fresh strawberries, and it gave the ganache a distinct flavour. I was really happy with it and will definitely experiment with other flavour infused ganache.

This cake is a good recipe for a nice afternoon tea as well. To make enough cake for the large letter cake I made a double batch.

INGREDIENTS:

Buttercake:
185g Unsalted Butter, softened
1 cup Caster Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence (or strawberry essence)
3 large Eggs
2 cups Self Raising Flour
1/4 cup Milk
optional Red Food Colouring

Ganache:
300ml Thickened Cream
180g White Chocolate, cut roughly and finely
1/4 cup Strawberries, chopped

Buttercream Edging:
80g Salted Butter, softened
80g Icing Sugar, sifted
Food Colouring

 DIRECTIONS:

Buttercake:
1 - Preheat oven to 180°c and grease cake tins. (I used three loaf pans)
2 - In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and essence together with an electric beater until light and creamy.
3 - Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
4 - Sift the flour over the mixture alternatively while adding the milk, a third at a time. Stir in lightly until each are mixed.
5 - Spoon in batter into prepared tin/s. You can then add in the food colouring and mix in.
6 - Cook for 50 minutes or until ready (if using smaller pan, make sure you don't overcook).
7 - Cool in pan slightly before cooling completely on wire rack.

Ganache:
1 - Chop up strawberries and mix with cream. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.
2 - Pour cream through a strainer into a small bowl, pressing the strawberries gently to get more flavour through.
3 - Heat cream in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil.
4 - Pour cream over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes before stirring. (If chocolate doesn't melt, place bowl over another bowl of boiling water and stir until smooth.
5 - Place ganache in fridge until it thickens to desired consistency. Stir occassionally.
6 - Cut cakes into desired shapes and spread ganache over the top. Clean excess ganache from the plate.

Buttercream:
1 - Cream butter and icing cream together until thick and creamy.
2 - Add in colouring, to make purple I used red and blue food colouring, and beat until well combined.
3 - Put the buttercream into a sandwich bag and cut off end. Outline the lettering to make the border.

Place cake in the fridge to set.

This is a fun cake that is tasty and lasts well for a few days. I'll be back on Thursday with the amazing wagon wheel slice that went off a treat on the weekend.

Wayne
xx