Marble Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

MARBLE CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM ICING

Sorry it's been 2 weeks since I posted but it has been a CRAZY few weeks. Working everyday and every night I had my student show, "The Words of Others". 19 of my teen students were in a show I wrote and directed about self acceptance, bullying and how the words of others effect us. The show was a great success and I was very proud of every single one of my kids.

Now during the rehearsal process, one of my students, Chanda, had her birthday. The actual day of her birthday we had a 4 and a half hour rehearsal in the night. It felt I had to give her a cake to make up for it. I always have a massive amount of bookmarks for recipes on my computer, so I looked through and remembered a recipe I found on the cadbury kitchen website for a marble cake. I knew I'd found my cake with the addition of some buttercream icing.

It's funny how this cake looks like it would be hard to make, but is really quite easy. This is a great cake to make and take somewhere - people will think you're a baking wizard. Have a go and remember to send me your pic - I love to see what people have done with the recipes.

Cake originally from:

http://www.cadburykitchen.com.au/recipes/view/chocolate-marble-cake/2/

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:

125 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 cups Self Raising Flour

3/4 cup Milk

2 tablespoons Cocoa, sifted

1 tablespoon Milk (extra)

Pink Food Colouring

Icing:

125 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

80 grams Icing Sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon Strawberry Essence

Pink Food Colouring

Silver Decorating Balls

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat the oven to 180°c and grease and line a round springform tin.

2 - Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3 - Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.

4 - Fold in the flour alternatively with the milk.

5 - Divide the mixture evenly into three bowls. Add the cocoa and extra milk to one, the pink food colouring to another, and leave one as is.

6 - Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, layering the colours.

7 - Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

8 - Cool for 10 minutes in pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

9 - For the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar until creamy.

10 - Add in the essence and colouring and beat until evenly distributed.

11 - Liberally spread across cake and sides and add the decorations.

12 - Serve and enjoy.

Catch you again soon for my most popular muffins.

Wayne

xx

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