Procrastibaking: Icing

Tonight's entry is actually one I made a week or two ago, and then subsequently fed to my D&D group.

The cake recipe comes from the site Brown Eyed Baker, here, and the icing recipe is one I got from a friend.

I'll reproduce the cake recipe here, since I changed a few bits and added things.

Also trying out a new format - recipe is in normal text, my notes are in italics.

Vanilla strawberry cake

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour , plus extra for dusting pans
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 3/4 cups sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
250 g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk , room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (at minimum. I used about 3 1/2 teaspoons, and it tasted fantastic)
6 large egg yolks , room temperature
3 large egg whites , room temperature(that's 6 eggs in total, not nine eggs.)

Punnet sliced strawberries (however many you want, really. Slice them thinish though.

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 175 degrees. Grease a large round baking tin, and line the bottom with baking paper (I forgot to do this. The cake stuck to the bottom and tore, so I had to ice it back together) . Dust pan with flour, and knock out excess.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 1/2 cups sugar together in large bowl. In 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.

(protip: there are a few ways of separating the yolk from the white. I tend to just crack the egg in half gently and strain it through my (clean!) fingers, which works as long as you’re gentle. Other people I know crack a smallish hole in the side of the egg, and let the white drip out into a cup. Separate the eggs however you’re most comfortable doing so, but remember to both check for rotten ones and to keep both bits of the egg. Also remember that you only need 3 egg whites for this recipe, so keep two of the extra ones separate for the icing. Find another use for the unneeded egg white.)

2. In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy. If you don’t have a stand mixer, don’t despair! You can use an ordinary electric beater, but your arms might get slightly sore. If you have a hand powered beater, and are either a masochist or skipping the gym to bake, you could use that instead.

3. With machine running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). You’re going for the uncooked meringue look here. Transfer to a clean bowl and set aside.

3. Add flour mixture to now-empty mixing bowl. With mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain). Stop mixer and scrape whisk and sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated.

4. Using rubber spatula, stir 1/3 of whites(the meringue stuff you made in step 3) into batter to lighten, then add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain.

(protip the second: Folding !=stiring. If you are unsure of the difference, youtube it.)

5. Pour cake mix into prepared tin. Lightly tap the sides and base of it against the bench to dislodge any large air bubbles.

6. Using either a butterknife or your fingers (I suggest the butterknife), press the sliced strawberries into the batter until they are totally covered. Try not to push them too deep into the batter, or they’ll possibly stick to the bottom and tear your cake.

7. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. (Mine actually took around about an hour, and I had to pull it out and cover it in alfoil and two layers of tea towels, then let it sit on the bench for half an hour before it was cooked. However, I suspect this was mostly due to my oven being old.)

8. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cake from side of pan with small knife, then invert onto greased wire rack and peel off parchment. Invert cake again and cool completely on rack.

And your cake is done!

(if it tore, don’t worry. Icing can hide all manner of sins)

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for:

Marshmallow Icing

Ingredients

120g white sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 ½ tsp water

2 egg whites (this is why I told you to keep the egg whites left over from the cake)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. 1. Cook the sugar, golden syrup and water in a saucepan over high heat until it reaches the softball stage (which the recipe tells me is 115 degrees Celsius on a sugar thermometer, I don’t have one of those, so I just waited until the mix looked like this:

then called it done.)

2. 2.While that’s cooking, beat the egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. (I’d suggest using an electric hand mixer to do so.)

3. 3.With the blades still running on low speed, pour the hot sugar syrup in a steady stream into the bowl.

(Please be careful, the syrup will be very hot (trust me, I know from experience it hurts when it gets on your fingers). The syrup will cool quickly in the pot, so work fast to get it into the bowl.)

4. 4.Once all the syrup is in the bowl, increase the speed of the beaters to medium-high. Continue to beat the mixture until it is glossy, thick and cool. Towards the end of mixing, add the vanilla essence.

And now, pictures! Again! (less of them this time, because my camera was playing up)