Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Layers of love filled with even more love

Last week we had the pretty - today is the recipe.
This cake was awesome. I am sure MUCH of that had to do with the help I had with baking it. No really... Bronwyn is actually a help in the kitchen now. Loving that change of pace. But Nicholas is a whirling durbish so it all kind of evens out.
For the cake, we made a boxed cake mix with an added box of vanilla pudding. Why? I think it makes a more moist cake - also an extra splash of vanilla never hurt anyone.
I also used Wilton Bake Even Strips on my pans. These are adjustable strips that you soak in water, then wrap around your pans while they are in the oven to get a more even bake, wow did they work well!
I froze the cakes so the next morning we were ready!
We decided on a filling made from Cool Whip, a package of pudding mix, and strawberries. Sounds weird right? It's not. The strawberries came from our very own patch in our yard. This year we've had quite a haul of strawberries! Our 19 plants really have produced. We also planted 75 more plants in the same bed - next year will be the year of the strawberry! Wow!
The buttercream recipe is finally one I will keep and make again, and again. SO good.
This was the first cake where I stacked and followed all the rules. Made a dam of buttercream - placed filling in the center. 4 layers of cake - 3 of filling. Let it set in the fridge a while between messing with it so it was actually stable! Did a crumb coat and a final coat too! It really did turn out great.
Bronwyn helped me place all the flowers where they should go and back into the fridge it went.
When we served it - the buttercream was firm but delicious - the cake didn't wobble one bit and it tasted great. Certainly a winner. SO glad I had a successful cake for this girl. Now I have a better plan for Nicholas next February. Good buttercream and lots of refrigeration.
Here are the various recipes of the parts and pieces I used for this cake. Want to know how we made the decoration? Click the post from last week.

Strawberry Cream Filling:

1 - 3 ounce dry vanilla pudding mix
1 12 ounce Cool Whip
½ cup milk
16 oz fresh strawberries
Mix together Cool Whip, Milk and pudding mix. Set half of it aside.
Chop strawberries into very small pieces and mix into half of the pudding mixture.
Filling is ready.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature (3 sticks)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 - 4 Tbsp heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using the paddle or whisk attachment whip butter on medium-high speed (if using whisk attachment whip on high speed) until nearly white and very fluffy, about 7 - 8 minutes, frequently scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add in powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until blended, then increase speed to medium and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 - 6 minutes, frequently scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Immediately spread over cooled cake or cupcakes.

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