Cake

Today I was struck by the random idea that I'd love to bake a plain cake and bake it well. Here are 2 recipes - one for an intense, professional buttercream frosting that sounds amazing and another for a strawberry chiffon cake that looks wonderful!

Recipes from Washington Post and Diamonds for Dessert.

Buttercream Frosting

Makes about 4 cups (generously frosts a three-layer cake)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole or low-fat milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
24 tablespoons (3 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Whisk together the sugar and flour in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Add the milk and cream; cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, whisking, until the mixture starts bubbling and becomes thick.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat on high speed until cool.

Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in several increments; beat until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 5 to 6 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat to incorporate.

If the frosting is too soft, transfer the bowl to the refrigerator to chill slightly, then beat again until it is the proper consistency. If the frosting is too firm, place the bowl over a pot of barely bubbling water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Ingredients
6 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
3 t baking powder
pinch of salt

Whipped Cream Ingredients
4 T sugar, divided
2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold and divided
1 t gelatin
1 T water
1 pint strawberries (+ kiwis, canned peaches, etc.)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the egg whites in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat them until soft peaks begin to form. Once this happens, gradually add 1/2 cup sugar while mixing until stiff peaks form. Set aside. In another bowl, mix the egg yolks, vegetable oil, water, and vanilla together. Set aside. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup sugar. Mix the egg yolk mixture with the dry ingredient mixture till smooth. Then gently fold in the egg white/sugar mixture.

Gently pour the mixture into 2-8" nonstick sprayed or parchment paper lined cake pans and smooth the tops. Bake the pans for around 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top springs back when you press on it. Remove the cake from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Strawberries: Wash and dry the strawberries. Cut off the leaf portion of the berries. Keep a few prettier strawberries to top the cake (I kept 6 for a 6-inch cake, so if you make an 8-inch cake, keep 8 berries) and set them aside for now. Take the rest of the berries and thinly slice them.

[NOTE: In addition, you can also use other similarly textured fruit, like sliced kiwi, or slices of canned peaches with the strawberries.]

Whipped Cream: Chill two large metal bowls and your beaters in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Place the teaspoon of gelatin and tablespoon of water in a pan. Mix and let sit for 5 minutes. In the meantime, pour 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and 2 T sugar in the chilled metal bowl. Beat on high power until you get soft peaks. Stop.

Heat your pan of gelatin and water over low heat until it turns liquid and the gelatin is just dissolved in the water (it should be warm, not hot, if hot, let cool a little). Scrape this liquid into your whipped cream. Continue beating the cream until stiff peaks form. Then stop, cover this with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Next, in the other chilled bowl, add 1 cup of heavy cream with 2 T sugar. Beat on high until you get stiff peaks in the cream. This cream without gelatin will be used first when assembling the cake layers.

[NOTE: In the final decoration steps, the whipped cream with gelatin is used in order to ensure that the piped design keeps. If you prefer whipping all the cream in one step, just double the amount of gelatin and water and add it in after you get soft peaks while beating all the cream. (I did it in two because I prefer not having so much gelatin in my whipped cream and I like working with smaller amounts of cream at a time).]