madnad

There is a craze of everything ‘fantasy’ or ‘unicorn’ at the moment; milkshakes, cupcakes, frappes etc. More often than not, the item does not include anything actually unicorn related, but has more of a pastel fantasy colour scheme. This is where I was going with this cake. It’s my sister’s birthday and I like to use this as an excuse to make a cake. Apart from my husband’s birthday in July, it is about the only time I make a cake.

The drip cake trend has been going strong for a couple of years now, and shows no sign of going away, yet this is the first time I have made one. I decided to make a Vanilla Buttermilk Cake as the base to my Fantasy Cake, rather than the usual Victoria sponge. If you are going to make this cake, go with whatever sponge recipe is your preference as long as you can colour it. I guess you could go with chocolate though if you really want.

Coloured Italian meringue buttercream, dripping pink candy, and a band of pastel sprinkles created the fantasy look. To make the cake a little more celebratory and decadent, I decided to top with macarons. This is obviously entirely optional. Instead of macarons, you could add fondant unicorn horns, or butterflies… get creative with it.

FANTASY DRIP BIRTHDAY CAKE

4 layers of rich vanilla buttermilk cake, filled with silky Italian meringue buttercream, and decorated with chocolate, sprinkles and macarons

COURSE: Dessert
Keyword: cake
SERVINGS: 16
AUTHOR: www.mutherfudger.co.uk
INGREDIENTS
SPONGE
  • 2 batches Vanilla Buttermilk Cake see notes
  • Gel Food Colouring pink, lilac, green
ITALIAN MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM
  • 8 Free Range Egg White
  • 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
  • 80 grams Caster Sugar
  • 160 ml Water
  • 400 grams Caster Sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • 400 grams Butter
DECORATION
  • 200 grams Fantasy Coloured Sprinkles
  • 300 grams Pink Candy Melts
  • 1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
MACARONS
  • 150 ml Whipping Cream
  • 450 grams White Chocolate
  • 24 Ready-made Macaron Shells
INSTRUCTIONS
SPONGE
  1. Make two batches of your favourite vanilla sponge, and divide the mixture into 3. Using a small amount of colouring, dye the cake mixture one pink, one lilac, and one green. Bake as usual then put to one side to cool
ITALIAN MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM
  1. Ensure your mixer bowl is clean and grease free. *You might want to make the IMBC in two batches depending on the size of your mixer bowl* Place the egg whites in the bowl with the cream of tartar, and whisk on high speed just until the egg whites are frothy. Slowly add the sugar as the mixer is on high, and leave until soft peaks form. Leave to one side
  2. Place the water and remaining sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, and heat over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, swirling gently but don't stir. When the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up a little and allow to boil until a thermometer reaches soft ball stage (235 F / 120 C). You don't want the mixture to colour, so if it starts to darken, turn down the heat a little
  3. Once the correct temperature has been reached, with your mixer on high speed, carefully and very slowly, pour the sugar syrup at the edges of your meringue, and not on the bowl side or on the beater. When all the syrup is added, leave the mixer on high speed until the sides of the mixing bowl has cooled to room temperature, roughly about 10 minutes
  4. With the mixer still on high speed, add the butter a piece at a time. Wait until each piece is incorporated before adding the next bit. After some of the butter has been added, you may notice your Italian meringue buttercream is deflated, even turning runny, soupy or looks curdled. Don't panic, this is normal! Keep beating and it will eventually - and quite suddenly - come together and firm up again. If not, try chilling for 10 minutes in the fridge then beating again
  5. Place the first layer of the cooled cake on a cake board or plate. Fill with the Italian meringue buttercream. Place the second layer of cake on, more buttercream, then the final layer of cake
  6. Take the remaining buttercream and divide into two. Colour one half lilac, and one half green. Starting with the the first colour buttercream, use an offset spatula to spread around the bottom two thirds of the cake. Repeat with the second colour and spread around the final third and the top
  7. Using the offset spatula, smooth the buttercream at the sides and on top. Don't worry if the two colours smudge into each other. Place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up, then smooth the top again until you have a nice smooth surface
DECORATION
  1. Take a mixture of sprinkles of various sizes and shapes, but in pink, lilac and green with maybe some silver. Press them carefully into the bottom half of the cake, more dense at the bottom, but thinning out as you move up
  2. 10. Melt the pink candy melts and stir in the vegetable oil. Carefully spoon some at the edge of the top of the cake. Using the spoon, ease it over the side. Repeat around the entire edge of the cake. Once all the drips have been done, pour more candy into the centre of the top of the cake, teasing out with the spoon to form a flat layer. Give the cake a little jiggle to level it out
MACARONS
  1. 11. Make the ganache by heating the whipping cream until it starts just starts to boil, then pour over the white chocolate. Leave a minute or two for the cream to gently melt the chocolate, then gently stir until no lumps remain. Leave the mixture out to come to room temperature, then place in the fridge to firm up
  2. 12. Once the ganache has firmed up, place in a mixer with the whipping attachment, and whip the mixture until light and fluffy. If necessary, add a very small amount of cream to loosen the mixture, but you want it to be piping consistency yet firm enough to hold a shape
  3. 13. Place the whipped ganache in a piping bag with a small star tip. Take two macaron shells, and pipe a circle just inside the edge of one half then sandwich together. Repeat until all shells have been sandwiched
  4. 14. With the remaining ganache, pipe 12 rosettes evenly spaced around the top of the cake. Just when you are ready to serve, place a macaron sandwich in each of the rosettes
RECIPE NOTES

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake

Sponge can be made the night before. Wrap well in cling film once fully cooled, and store in the fridge.

Any left over IMBC can be frozen. To reuse, allow to defrost to room temperature, then whip until silky again


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