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

Coca Cola Chocolate Cake

COCA COLA CHOCOLATE CAKE

Here's part two of the birthday cakes I cooked last weekend for friend's birthdays. This one was one of my boyfriend's closest friend's, Elyse, who's also become a great friend of mine. Now Elyse loves a drink of Coke, we joke she's addicted. Now I had heard you could put Coke in cakes and it tastes great, but hadn't tried it. This was my chance to have a go, and wow it was worth it. This is one of the best cakes I've made in a longtime. The Coke made the cake light and fluffy, and combined with my standard ganche recipe, it was perfect. I always know when the cake is good because it goes fast. We cut the cake up and everyone had a slice and ate it all - a sure sign the cake was a hit. People said they had hints of coke as they ate it. So have a go at this cake and I know you'll love it.

There's a few things I want to try over the next few weeks, experiment a little. Some may work, some may not. So I look forward to sharing the successes with you.

Original Recipe from: http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/coca-cola-chocolate-cake-L1378.html

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups Marshmallows

1/2 cup Oil

1/2 cup Margarine

3 tablespoons Cocoa

1 cup Coke

1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

2 Eggs

1 1./4 cups of Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 cups Self Raising Flour

Ganache:

400g Milk Chocolate, roughly chopped

300g Thickened Cream

Lolly Coke Bottles to decorate

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 160°c and grease line a springform tin with baking paper.

2 - Place marshmallows, oil, margarine, cocoa and Coke in a saucepan and heat and stir on medium heat until melted.

3 - Mix in bicarbonate soda.

4 - Beat flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and buttermilk.

5 - Mix all ingredients together, including flour, and pour into springform tin. The mixture will be runny, so don't worry.

6 - Bake for one hour or until cake bounces back or skewer comes out clean.

7 - Let cool in pan. When cool, cut in half, ready to ice.

8 - To prepare the ganache, place cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring just to boil.

9 - Remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate (in a heatproof bowl). Leave for 5 minutes and then whisk mixture together. Chill in fridge, stirring every few minutes until it gets thicker.

10 - Spread the ganache liberally over the cake and the side. Refridgerate to set.

11 - Top with fizzy Coke bottle lollies and enjoy.

Catch you on Tuesday for the results of my national cheesecake day bake.

Wayne

xx