Short & Sweet: A slice of heaven

A slice of heaven

With the heat and finishing my placement year I haven't had much time to bake recently but this week I had the chance to make a 25th wedding anniversary cake.

This two tiered semi-naked strawberry and vanilla cake was definitely a crowd pleaser, and was perfect in this hot weather, with its delicate Swiss meringue buttercream, and light flavours.

Strawberry and vanilla cake

Prep time: 2 hrs

Cooking time: 1.5 hrs

Serves: 40 servings

Ingredients

For the cake:

900g margarine/ softened butter
900g caster sugar
18 eggs
900g self raising flour
1.5 punnets of strawberries (chopped into chunks and dried with kitchen roll)
2 tsp vanilla bean paste

*Each layer of cake consisted of 150g fat, sugar and flour with 3 eggs.

For the Swiss meringue buttercream:

8 egg whites
800g softened butter
600g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste

For the filling:

1 punnet of strawberries chopped into thin slices
Strawberry jam

Method

For the cakes:
Firstly preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan oven, and line your 6" and 8" cake tins. I cooked two or three cakes at a time as I only had two tins of each size & due to the size of my oven.

For the cakes place the butter/margarine in a stand mixer or bowl with the sugar and mix with a paddle or wooden spoon until they are both combined and are of a lighter colour and creamy consistency.

Gradually add the eggs one by one, making sure to whisk well between each addition to incorporate as much air as possible.
When adding quite a few eggs don't worry too much if the mixture curdles. Personally I don't think this changes the texture of the cake at all and it will be undone when you add in the flour.

Whilst the eggs are being added and mixed chop up the strawberries into small chunks and pat dry with kitchen roll, until you have got as much liquid out of them as possible. Then place them into your measured out flour and coat them. This will hopefully prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

Once all the eggs are added and mixed thoroughly, add the flour to the mixture and fold in on a very slow speed or with a metal spoon. Make sure you do not mix too vigorously as this will knock out the air that was previously incorporated.

Finally, add the vanilla bean paste. I use this instead of vanilla essence/extract as I feel it gives a nicer vanilla flavour.

Pour the mixture into your prepared tins and place into the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked all the way through. Once cooked place on a wire rack to cool.
*I used Wilton cake bands with this recipe to make sure that the cakes were cooked evenly and came out flat. This was because a 'naked' cake has to look pretty perfect so I didn't want to have to cut the cakes at all after baking. To use these you soak them in cold water for 5 minutes and then place round the outside of your tin whilst they are cooking. I love them!

For the Swiss meringue buttercream:

Meanwhile, to make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream, separate 8 eggs and place the egg whites into your stand mixer bowl. Next add the caster sugar also to this bowl and give them a quick whisk together.

Swiss meringue requires you to cook the eggs slightly to get rid of any bacteria so it is safe to eat. Place a small amount of water into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Place your mixing bowl over the water, ensuring that they do not touch.

Warm the egg and sugar mix, until the sugar is completely melted. You can test this by rubbing a small amount of the mixture between your fingers, it should feel smooth instead of grainy. Make sure to stir the mixture frequently at this stage to ensure the eggs don't start to cook fully.

Once all the sugar has melted place the bowl onto your stand mixer and mix on a medium high speed for 10-15 minutes, until the mixture is cool.
*You could do this with a hand whisk however, it might take quite a while longer.

When the egg white and sugar mix is cool and of a tick meringue like consistency you can now begin to add the butter one chunk at a time. This step must be done slowly, if you are to rush this your icing may end up lumpy and runny.

Keep your stand mixer on a medium speed until all the butter has been added and well mixed. Finally, add the vanilla bean paste and mix.

Your icing is now ready to use!

Constructing your cake:

To construct your cake place a small amount of your pre-prepared icing onto the middle of your two cake boards/ stand. You should have one for the bottom which is bigger than your cake, and one for the top cake that is exactly the same size. I used a 6" thin cake board for the top cake and a 12" thick cake board for the bottom cake.

Then place the two layers that are going to be on the bottom on top of the boards. The icing will keep these in place.

In a saucepan heat 4 tablespoons of strawberry jam until it is of a thinner consistency. Then using a pastry brush, brush the top of the bottom and middle layers of each cake with the jam, making sure to leave one layer without any jam as this will be the top that will be iced.

Next chop your strawberries into thin slices and place neatly on top of the cakes that you have just brushed with jam.

Now, place your Swiss meringue buttercream into a piping bag, and snip the end off. Pipe in your desired design on top of the strawberries to cover the surface, I just did small blobs.

You can now place the second layer on top of the bottom one and repeat until all layers are stacked.

Fill in the gaps round the edges of each layer and smooth over with a palette knife. Place in the fridge to cool for about 30 minutes.

Now gradually cover the cake in an even layer of buttercream. Then using a cake scraper or a palette knife at a 90 degree angle turn the cake turntable keeping a gentle pressure on the side of the cake. This will make the icing smooth all around the outside. You should be left with a thin layer of icing all the way round the cake. You can always add a bit more and repeat if it doesn't look exactly how you like it.

Once you are happy with the icing, place back in the fridge to cool again.

Finally, place a few dowels into the bottom cake (i used three wooden dowels), and carefully stack the 6" cake on top of the 8" cake. As Swiss meringue is quite a forgiving icing being so soft you can patch up any dents or scrapes that were made once they are stacked. I also added a touch more icing around the bottom edge of the 6" cake to hide the cake board.

You can now decorate the cake with decorations of your choice! I used a cake topper and a few flowers. Although, be warned arranging flowers on a cake is a lot harder than I thought it would be!

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make this showstopping semi-naked celebration cake.

A slice of heaven

Strawberry and vanilla cake

Ingredients

Method

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