Ombre Birthday Cake

I'm a tiny bit behind in uploading these posts. My birthday was on March 16th, yay go Pisces. For the month of March the theme of the bakes were Jasmine's choice. I knew I wanted to make my own birthday cake and I wanted to do a few different techniques. I went with an ombre cake, in my favorite color blue.... water sign. I also wanted to use my favorite flavors, so I added a lemon and coconut curd. I left the buttercream just vanilla, and the cake flavor vanilla also. I added silver and gold leaf because I'm extra and I think the cake came out beautifully and delicious.

Finished ombre cake slice

Finished cake, it looks so spring like

look at that ombre cake batter

I love the colors

after blending the frosting colors, sort of like watercoloring

perfect meringue with silver foil and teal stripe

Look at these cute little meringue kisses

Close up of the side of the cake. You can see the details of the edible foils.

This post is a little different because I really didn't take as detailed pictures but I will post the recipe.

Vanilla Cake

• 9 egg whites
• 4 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups butter (room temperature)
• 2 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
• different shades of blue gel food coloring

Preheat your oven to 350F and spray 3 8inch round baking pans and set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and then set aside.

Stir vanilla and buttermilk together and set aside.

In a stand mixer beat butter and sugar on medium high speed using a paddle attachment ( 5 minutes)

Mix on low add egg whites one at a time.

Add in 1/3 of dry ingredients then 1/2 milk mixture, followed by 1/3 dry mixture and last 1/2 of milk mixture and the last of the dry ingredients.

Divide the cake batter into three bowls and add in gel coloring. Pour in prepared pans and bake at 350F for 30-33 minutes. 

Cool 10-20 minutes before inverting pans

Leave on cooling rack to cool completely

Here's a recipe for the Swiss Meringue Butter Cream and Lemon Curd

For the coconut curd I used the same lemon curd recipe just replaced the lemon curd with 3/4 cups of coconut milk.

I finished the cake with macarons and little meringue kisses and gold and silver. 

I will be making better posts, it's just that I've been so busy with a lot of things and my veggie garden.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

Time for the third bake for the month of February. The perfect pair this week was Peanut Butter & Jelly. I was thinking about baking a PB&J cheesecake but at the last minute I scrapped that idea. I decided to bake cupcakes because I normally don't bake them. This was also the perfect opportunity for me to try making some swiss meringue buttercream. I'm really glad that I did. My mom requested some chocolate coconut cupcakes so I made some of those too. I made a peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream and it is amazing. So light and peanut buttery. I think this may be my new favorite way to make buttercream because the american style is so much more heavier. I filled the peanut butter cupcakes with some classic grape jelly. I also drizzled more jelly on top and I made some roasted peanut dust and topped each cupcake with that. They came out so well.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcake

Here's what you will need

Chocolate Cupcake

• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup softened butter ( 1 stick)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup hot water

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 3 egg whites
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cup softened butter ( 3 sticks)  each stick cut into 8 pieces

for coconut swiss meringue buttercream

• 2 tablespoons of coconut extract

for peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream

• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

First sift your flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda together and then set aside.

In a bowl cream together softened butter and sugar until nice and fluffy

add in your eggs one at a time

Add in half of your flour mixture

pour in your milk and blend

add in the second half of your flour mixture

take your hot water and pour that into your cupcake batter and mix till combined

This is hot water, I just added it to the same measuring cup that had the milk in it

Preheat oven to 350F

Scope your batter into cupcake liners being careful not to over fill (cupcakes will rise) 3/4 full is always a good fill level.

Bake in 350F oven for 15-20 minutes ( I baked mine at 17 minutes) everyone's oven is different so use a toothpick to check doneness.

After removing from oven let them sit in the pan for about 10 minutes then move them to a rack to cool.

These smelled so good after coming out of the oven

I took a measuring spoon and carefully removed some of the inside of the cupcake to stuff them.

best part about removing the center is that you get to eat cupcake scraps

I just filled these with some grape jelly I had in the fridge (you can use whatever you have)

Yummy jelly

For the coconut filled I just mixed about a 1/2 cup shredded coconut with 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

yummy coconut filling

These are ok to leave out while you work on your frostings.

In your stand mixer bowl (or you could use a glass or metal bowl) place your egg whites and sugar and give it a quick whisk

 You are going to place this bowl over a pot of simmering water and cook until all the sugar is dissolved or a thermometer reads 160F (make sure the water in the small pot does not touch the bottom of the bowl

Once all the sugar is dissolved and you reach 160F remove the bowl and attach it to your stand mixer and begin whisking the egg whites on high until stiff peaks form and your bowl feels cool to the touch.

look at that glossy meringue

with your mixer still on high add one piece of butter in at a time.

thats a whole lot of butter

Keep whisking on high, if your buttercream looks like it will curdle keep mixing it will become silky and smooth.

nice and silky

I then separated some out to flavor the peanut butter  swiss meringue butter cream. I just added peanut butter and tasted it.

add in some peanut butter and adjust to your taste

For the coconut cupcakes I added the coconut extract and whipped it in the mixer and placed in a pipping bag. I like a lot of frosting.

I really love a lot of frosting

I topped the peanut butter and jelly cupcakes with the peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream. I microwaved a tiny bit of jelly for about 15 seconds and drizzled that over the cupcakes. I then placed some honey roasted peanuts in my coffee/spice grinder and blitzed them till I had a crumb consistency and I sprinkled that on top.

I did make a mess with the jelly, but look at these cupcakes

For the coconut I just threw a ton of shredded coconut on top and placed two almond slivers on top.

After adding the coconut 

So yummy

The PB & Jelly are my favorite

Ya'll better bake these

The cupcakes were deliciously moist and not overly sweet. Also the buttercream freezes well ( I had enough to frost another dozen cupcakes). Definitely try baking these. Hmmm I'm still trying to decide on the last bake. I'm leaning towards something with red velvet.