My beautiful daughter turned 4 a couple weeks ago.
Of course knowing her birthday was coming up I had been keeping an eye out for the perfect cake for her. She is girlie, girlie and more girlie so of course some kind of pink would be incorporated I knew.
Initially though, we were thinking of maybe doing Hello Kitty or some kind of princess theme and I thought I had this great idea for a princess cake – she wanted a koi pond with mermaids surrounded by flowers. Sounded pretty and also like a lot of work, but I was willing to give it a go.
Then I saw this cake.
I had done this type of piping before and knew it was super easy so I set about convincing her this was a better idea than the koi pond. It really didn’t take much, thank goodness!
She fell in love all the pink.
I mean even the cake itself was pink:
How could she resist THAT?!
Then at the last minute I decided to add the pearls. The string around the bottom are some fresh water pearls my mother-in-law found at a garage sale, I think, and gave to Juliette for dress-up and then my husband discovered them and decided that she had no business having real pearls in her dress-up box and confiscated them.
Juliette later found the confiscated pearls and put them in her own little jewelry box where I found them and even though I don’t think it’s a big deal, I (of course) have to back my husband on the decision, so I confiscated them back.
She then found them again and put them back in her jewelry box.
I found them again and we had a little discussion about it and she ended up with the pearls living in her jewelry box with a very sincere promise to take good care of them.
I then proceeded to put them on her cake and allow them to get covered in very pink frosting.
It washed off.
Anyway, I think the pearls added a nice touch, if I do say so myself.
The real beauty of this cake is the fact that it was delicious.
It wasn’t heavy or dense as scratch cakes can be, it was perfect.
The use of real strawberries for the pink color also added to the wonderful flavor of the cake. Mmmm, I couldn’t stay out of it! It was a really good thing I only made a 6″ and not a great big one.
Ingredients for the Cake
1 cup Butter
2 & 1/2 cups Sugar
2 Egg Yolks
5 Egg Whites
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring (I did not add this)
1 & 1/4 cups Pureed Strawberries
3 cups Cake Flour, sifted
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
pinch Salt
1 cup Buttermilk (because I am at about 7000ft I did have to add an extra 1/2 cup of heavy cream but if you are at sea level this shouldn’t be necessary)
Preparation Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚.
2. Prepare your pans, as I said above, I made 2 – 6″ layers but then I had enough batter left to make about 12 cupcakes. The recipe really is for 9″ rounds. To prepare your pans cut out a sheet of parchment paper to fit on the bottom of the pan. Stick the paper in the pan and brush the whole pan and paper with soft butter, then sprinkle a little flour in the pan and shake to coat. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the egg yolks, one at a time and then add the vanilla, food coloring and pureed strawberries beat for another 3 minutes.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a whisk.
6. Alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the butter mixture beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined.
7. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and then gently fold into the batter.
8. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
Ingredients for the Frosting
1 – 8oz Cream Cheese, room temp
1/2 cup Butter, room temp
1/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
1 lb. Powdered Sugar
Preparation Instructions
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese until light and creamy.
2. Add the liquids and mix until combined.
3. Slowly add the powdered sugar a little at a time so you don’t create a sugar cloud in your kitchen. Once you have a nice stiff consistency, add the food coloring until you get the desired color and then you are ready to frost!
For a tutorial on piping the roses click here.
Thanks for the beautiful recipe: http://apronofgrace.com
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