Strawberry Champagne Birthday Cake

Yesterday was my birthday, and just as everyone suspected, I couldn't stay away from the kitchen! I know, who makes their own birthday cake, right?!

There has been a lot of cakes in the making recently, so I wanted keep it rustic and simple, while trying some new flavors (read: not spend hours working with fondant). I love the idea of a so called naked cake, where you cover the cake with a very thin layer of buttercream, but let the cake underneath show through. It has a romantic look to it, and was perfect for this Champagne cake with a strawberry buttercream.

This cake actually tastes like Champagne. It uses two whole cups in the batter, but it doesn't turn out boozy. That Champagne taste, together with fresh strawberries made into a syrup, is a perfect combination, and would make a great New Years Eve cake. 

If you are using real flowers as cake decorations, there are small white plastic tubes, flower cake spikes, you can use. You simply put the flower stem in the tube and stick it on the cake without the stem actually touching the cake. It's an easy and cheap way to make a cake look beautiful, without having to spend hours making sugar flowers that no one will eat anyway. Well, except that one three year old who eats anything.

This cake was a great way to start off my 31st year. Happy birthday to me!

Champagne Cake

by 10th Kitchen

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

6 egg whites

2 cups champagne

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees (175C). Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add extract and beat in egg whites one at a time.
3. Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with flour to prevent curdling.  
4. Pour batter into pans and bake 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Start checking cake for doneness around the 30-minute mark, and remove from oven as soon as the toothpick comes out clean.) Let cool for a few minutes, then invert onto wire rack to cool fully before frosting.

Strawberry syrup

1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
(1 tbsp of cornstarch if needed)

Bring the strawberries and sugar to a boil. Mash the strawberries with a fork and let simmer until tick. If you like it to be thicker, mix a little water with a tbsp of corn starch. Add to the strawberries and remove from heat when it has thickened.

For the buttercream, I use this vanilla buttercream and simply add the strawberry syrup.



Champagnetårta
från 10th Kitchen

375 g mjöl
3 tsk bakpulver
1/2 tsk salt
226 g osaltat smör
400 g socker
1 tsk vaniljextrakt
6 äggvitor
473 ml champagne

Fiery Wedding Cake

I had the great honor to make my first wedding cake this weekend! My friend Millie wanted to surprise her best friend, who married a firefighter in a small ceremony. Since a big part of their new life together has to do with a move and a new fire station, Millie wanted the cake to have a fire theme.

I have to be honest, I was just as much terrified as excited to make this cake. As a self-taught baker, making a wedding cake feels like the ultimate challenge, because you want it to be perfect. I can't say it was, but I'm happy overall with how it turned out.

This was my first time making ruffles, and even though it's time consuming, it's not that hard. You start by covering your crumb-coated cake with a base of white fondant. To create the ombre effect ruffles, take some additional fondant and color it the colors you want to use. I made red, orange and yellow. Then, take some of the colored fondant and add plain white to create the lighter hues. Roll out the lightest color you are using and cut long strips. Using a ball tool, roll it along one side of the edges to thin out the fondant, and create the ruffle effect. Brush some water on the cake where you would like the ruffles to start (you will want to go top to bottom of the cake) and add the fondant strip. This will work as glue. Continue with the darker hues until you have covered the cake, but make sure you let the last row of fondant ruffle downwards to cover the cake base. 

Making cakes is a humbling experience, and I learn something new every time I make one. This cake was a lot of fun to decorate, and I'm looking forward to making more wedding themed cakes in the future!