Lovecakes

In this past week, I was faced with a tremendously important task. It was time for the preparation of a gift offered many many months ago. My dear friend Heather was married this weekend. For my gift to Heather and Marlon, I was going to make the “cake” for the wedding. Heather has always loved my baking and this just seemed like a natural extension of that… and such an exciting way to play a role in this special moment in her and Marlon’s new life together.

After much debate, we determined that cupcakes would be made and in the following flavours:
- Devil’s Food with Rich Chocolate Frosting
- Red Velvet with Buttercream Frosting
- Buttermilk with Maple Vanilla Frosting

The recipes for the Devil’s Food and Buttermilk cakes, as well as the chocolate frosting, came from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes book. (I just saw it at Costco today for $16… well worth purchasing.) The Red Velvet cake was written about previously when I did the first test run. The Maple Vanilla was a seven minute frosting to which I added maple and vanilla extracts. The buttercream is a recipe that I have been tweaking and enjoying for a few years now…


Seven Minute Frosting

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups + 1-2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 egg whites
+ 1 teaspoon of whatever extract which you are looking to flavour your frosting

You want your egg whites to be room temperature, so take them out of the fridge ahead of time. The reason for this is quite obvious once you know it… the warmer whites will expand and fluff up much more fully and easily if they are room temperature. The cold whites will fight that process and not get nearly as voluminous as the warmer ones.

Combine the water, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan. Clip a candy thermometer to the pot. Bring to a boil. Stir to help the sugar dissolve but once the syrup begins to boil, leave it be. You’re looking for the syrup to reach 230 F.

While the syrup is bubbling, beat the egg whites until they reach the soft peaks stage. Slowly add the 1-2 tablespoons of sugar to the whites at this point. The syrup should be around 230 F by this point. Turn your mixer back on to medium / medium-high, then slowly pour the syrup, down the side of the bowl, into the whites. Whisk until the whites cool and reach the stiff peaks stage. Add your flavouring or extract… for the maple vanilla, I used 1/2 teaspoon of maple extract and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. There are no limits here!

Pipe or slather on your cake. Use immediately.

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Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
2 packages (8 ounces) cream cheese
1 stick / 1/2 cup butter
350 – 500 g icing sugar…
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream the cheese, butter and vanilla together, then slowly add the sugar. I don’t even bother measuring the icing sugar out. I add and then taste test until I reach whatever sweetness that I would like for that particular batch. So easy and soooo good. You’ll keep taste-testing this, long after you’ve gotten the sweet-cheesy combination right.

You can make this ahead of time, then bring to room temperature before icing. I usually bring my icing to room temperature, then give it a quick whisk or mix in the mixer to fluff it up again.
So… in lieu of inserting Martha Stewart’s recipes here, I am opting for a bit of a photo album of the Lovecakes:




xoxo…

A full album can be seen here!