Unicorn Cake

Time goes by so quickly, doesn't it? I just completed my third year at uni and yet it almost feels like I was snapping away on my little compact camera when I first started blogging last weekend. Now on summer holidays, I've been looking for inspiration for new baking ideas and happened to stumble upon this gem by Cupcake Jemma.  

Now I thought to myself, this beauty should be easy to make. NOPE. The vanilla cake I had baked turned out dense, undercooked and just awful. My first batch of rainbow meringues had too much colour on them and took FOREVER to bake. I only realised my mistake of ignoring a bit of undissolved sugar in the meringue after they came out as hard as a rock when I actually thought that they were still undercooked. *Insert -_- face here*. Oh, and also, do not make these meringues on a humid day, I repeat, not on a humid day! The humidity messes with the sugar in the meringues and makes it sticky on the outside which ruins the appearance and colour on these beauties. 

After a day of baking disasters, it felt like my 5 years+ of baking experience went out of the window. But as they say, when you fall you gotta pick yourself up am i rite? So this time I opted for my trusty chocolate cake with strawberries and cream filling. I tried out a recipe from the Cake Merchant because creaming butter and sugar, when done correctly, almost always ensures a light and fluffy cake. I used a basic recipe for rainbow meringues from Bakers Royale but halved the recipe because I only needed a small amount of "unicorn poop" to top my cake. You can see how these meringue kisses are made from this video. For the outside of the cake, I used a vanilla buttercream frosting which I coloured pink, yellow and blue. 

I'm usually a sucker for simple cakes but you know, I could get used to making these kind of colourful beasts. 

Chocolate and Cherry Cake

Chocolate and cherries are my favourite combination - you've probably seen it already in my Black Forest Cake and even in my blog name, Cherry Choc Cupcake. What I love about this combo is that the fresh cherries offset the sweetness of the chocolate and helps balances the flavours of the cake perfectly. Think of moist, chocolate cake sandwiched in between cream and fresh cherries and topped with luscious milk chocolate ganache. 

Coming up with the idea of this cake came from my desire to play on the classical Black Forest Cake. Reserving the same flavours, yet introducing a new element to the cake was my main focus. After some random searching on Youtube, I saw a video that displayed the creation of "chocolate bark" and I was instantly sold. What about creating a cake that gave an impression of cutting into a tree log with hidden goodness inside? Obviously it doesn't look like a tree log, but it's close enough with the chocolate bark in place. 

Putting the cake together was simple as I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe from Sweetapolita. However, instead of baking the cake in 3 separate tins, I baked them in 2 and cut each layer in half after cooling them down. The filling is just whipped cream with pitted, chopped cherries and the chocolate ganache is milk cooking chocolate melted with heated cream. Creating the chocolate bark was super easy - just melt or temper dark cooking chocolate and pipe rows vertically next to each other on baking trays lined with baking paper, leaving space in between each one. Use a spatula knife to smooth out the chocolate and to create the ripples needed to realistically resemble actual bark. Once the chocolate has fully set, assemble the cake with layers of chocolate cake, cream filling and top with chocolate ganache. Then carefully place the chocolate bark around the cake, pressing them slightly against the cake to secure them in place. Top with fresh cherries and refrigerate until ready.

Chocolate and Strawberry Pocky Cake

Chocolate and strawberries are a modern, yet classical combination. Especially in a cake - where the tartness of the strawberries helps balance out the richness of the chocolate, and the sweetness of the buttercream. It might sound cliché, but it is, I believe, a match made on Earth for those romantics out there (hahaha....nope?).

This cake captures the essence of the chocolate and strawberries - an idea presented to me by my adorable best friend and university buddy K, who I am proud to dedicate this cake and post to. After going through some of the toughest times in my life, K was there to listen, give advice and ultimately helped me get through it. Also, props to K for helping me assemble and decorate the cake!!

The strawberry pocky decoration was inspired by two of my favourite bloggers - Raspberri Cupcakes and Sprinkle Bakes. After seeing the cake on the blogs for the first time, I immediately added it to my long baking list that always seems to end up at the bottom of my cupboard. Going through the list was like uncovering buried treasure because it contained some recipes I even forgot that I added a few years back.

Since chocolate and strawberries were the theme for this cake, an idea popped in my head to have chocolate cake layers, filled with fresh cream and strawberries, covered in strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and encased in strawberry pocky sticks. What I love about this cake is that the strawberry pocky - I used 4 boxes - helps to cover the messy frosting underneath and removes the hours (okay - maybe minutes if you're pro) to smooth out the frosting.

I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe by Sweetapolita, which always results in a rich, moist, chocolatey cake. I love swiss meringue buttercream - the silky texture compliments the cake and its subtle sweetness avoids the whole cake from tasting sickly sweet. Although it can taste quite buttery due to the large amount of butter, I found that the strawberry puree helps cut the taste of butter and gives it a fresh tart flavour. You can find the recipe here. I'd like to believe that love = chocolate + strawberries....

Black Forest Cake

I never expected the amount of excitement that would come around getting a new camera. Before its arrival, I spent countless hours watching videos and reading tutorials to prepare myself to step into the wonderful world of DSLR photography. Additionally, I signed up for a food photography e-course by Minimalist Baker and can say that it has been an extremely helpful asset towards exploring the new possibilities brought up by the camera. Prior to that, I used a point-and-shoot camera, which served me well for a few years as a beginner, until I began to recognise its limitations in both image quality and shooting speed. After finally completing school, I gathered the money I saved up for the past few years to invest in a good camera, forming an admiration for the Canon 100D as the smallest and lightest DLSR camera on the market; perfect for my small hands. The camera exceeded my expectations and hopes for beautiful photography, so much so, that I baked my own version of a Black Forest Cake to welcome it as the first of many posts to feature pictures taken with my camera.

The cake itself is adapted from Sweetapolita's one-bowl chocolate cake recipe, wherein it beholds a moist, dark chocolate crumb that is easy to bake as it is to eat. Although the intensity of the chocolate depends on the cocoa powder, it is a great cake to whip up for those sudden chocolate cravings. It is also one of those cakes that stays moist in the fridge for days (if it even lasts that long!), so it is perfectly fine to bake and freeze the cake layers ahead before frosting and decorating. And the frosting, is non other than swiss meringue buttercream flavoured with dark chocolate. Luckily I had planned ahead, using the egg yolks for salted caramel ice cream, which was unfortunately out of the running to be photographed. While the buttercream turned out with a lighter chocolate colour and intensity, it was heavenly silky, smooth and melted in the mouth as if it was made out of chocolate clouds. It's amazing how swiss meringue buttercream can be so delicious without being all gritty and unpleasant like the sugary powdered-sugar frosting.  

Inside the cake is layers of vanilla whipped cream filling with fresh cherries, adding a juicy burst of cherry goodness in every bite. Light, airy, whipped cream accentuating subtle sweetness is a traditional component, yet the combination of it with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream adds a modern take on the classic Black Forest cake. The chocolate trees I had piped for the collar is somewhat borderline between messy and elegant. I mean, it's pretty inconsistent regarding the design and size of each tree. But it does kind of cover up my impatience on getting a perfectly smooth and even surface. Plus I was running out of time to take advantage of the beautiful sunlight streaming through the window. In the end, the piping was messy as the buttercream had become soft by the time I had frosted the cake, but the cake overall tasted pretty good. Also, I noticed that the frosting on the outside of the cake was too thin and needed more frosting to cover up. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it, and hopefully you may want to give this cake a try; its worth the extra time and effort!

One-bowl chocolate cake

Makes one 6-inch, 3 layer cake 

Adapted from Sweetapolita

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of plain (all-purpose) flour (180 g)
• 1 cup of sugar (225 g)
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (60 g)
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder (6 g)
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda (6 g)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (2.5 g)
• 140 ml of milk
• 130 ml of strong, hot brewed coffee OR boiled water
• 75 ml of vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, room temperature 
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (15 ml)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease three 6-inch round cake tins with melted butter, placing baking paper rounds on the base of each tin.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer.
3. Briefly whisk together all the remaining wet ingredients in a jug for easy pouring.
4. Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, mix the dry ingredients on medium speed for 2 minutes.
5. Slowly pour the liquid from the jug prepared earlier into the mixture and mix until combined. If there are any lumps, continue mixing until the batter is smooth. 
6. Evenly divide the mixture between the three pans using an electronic scale, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. 
7. Rotate the pans in the oven, and continue baking for about another ten minutes. The cakes are ready when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs.
8. Cool the cake layers on a wired rack for 15 minutes, turning them out to completely cool. If the cakes are domed, you may try to use a clean tea towel to gently push down on the dome to flatten it immediately after they have come out of the oven.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 5 large, fresh egg whites (150 g)
• 1 cup of sugar (225 g) with two teaspoons taken out
• 200 g of unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into cubes
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (5 ml)
• 200 g of chopped dark chocolate (300 g if you want a more intense chocolate flavour)

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, or in a microwave, stirring at 20 second intervals until smooth. Set aside to cool.
2. In a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, whisk the egg whites and sugar together until the temperature reaches 65.5 degrees C (150 degrees F) or until the sugar has dissolved completely and the egg whites are hot to touch.
3. Transfer the egg whites to the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment of the mixer, whisk the mixture at high speed to firm peaks until the meringue is thick, glossy and the bottom of the bowl feels neutral (not warm).
4. At medium speed, add the butter cubes one at a time, until incorporated. Mix until it reaches a silky smooth texture. If the mixture has curdled, continue mixing until it becomes smooth again. If the mixture is runny, refrigerate it for about 15 minutes and continue mixing until it comes back together.
5. Add vanilla, and then add the melted and cooled chocolate at medium speed until combined.

For the vanilla whipped cream filling, whisk 420 ml of cold thickened cream, 1/4 cup of powdered (icing) sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract with an electric mixer to firm peaks (it should hold its shape) until combined. 

For the chocolate trees, melt 200 g of dark/milk chocolate and fill it into a piping bag with a small, round tip. Pipe trees of about 3 inches tall on a baking tray lined with baking (parchment) paper. Extra chocolate may be melted again and reused for other purposes.

Assembly of Black Forest Cake

1. Using a cake turntable, place a cake layer on a circular cake board. With an ice cream scoop, add one scoop of whipped cream filling onto the cake and evenly spread it out with an offset palette knife. Spread a few pitted fresh cherries on top and add another scoop of cream on top of the cherries, smoothing it out. 
2. Repeat the step for another layer, placing a cake layer on top of the cream and adding the cherries.
3. Fill the spaces in between the cake layers with more whipped cream.
4. Refrigerate the cake for about 15 minutes.
5. Add a scoop of chocolate swiss meringue buttercream on top of the cake, smoothing out and applying to the sides of the cake until thinly covered to seal in the crumbs. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
6. Add more buttercream to the sides of the cake to form a somewhat thick layer, using an offset palette knife and bench scraper to achieve a smooth surface.
7. Pipe a buttercream border using a 1M star tip.
8. Chill the cake to set for at least 2 hours.
9. When ready to serve, carefully peel the chocolate trees from the baking paper and place them on the sides of the cake.
10. Serve the cake at room temperature, carefully slicing the cake in between each chocolate tree.

Neapolitan Layer Cake

 

So I was invited to a party last week. I was so excited about it that I planned what to make 3 days in advance. It only seemed fitting that a neapolitan cake would wow the guests and act as a thank you gift to the party host for inviting us. Distinctive layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry that is most familiar to me in my childhood (actually in ice cream form and yes, I was spoilt for the amount of ice cream I was allowed to have). Strangely enough, I remember only eating the chocolate part and leaving out the rest for my mum. But now, I love neapolitan ice cream in its whole form and eat every part of it (my favourite is still chocolate!).

I was only able to take photos of the cake before transferring it to the cake carrier so that's why the frosting-covered baking paper is still stuck to the cake (I use it to easily lift the cake onto the container). So I would like to apologise for the mess I had to capture, which honestly is quite embarrasing to me...but the main component in the pictures is the cake, right?

So would you like to see what's hidden in this cake? Here it is, the three neapolitan layers! I was surprised to see it look so similar to its ice cream form, and it seems that my hard work has paid off. I had some problems with the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream, but it came out all right at the end. I think it was due to the amount of strawberry puree and butter it had in it. The cake was also a little dense, but it was a real crowd pleaser and by the end of the day, there was none left...not even crumbs. I was so happy to see people enjoying the cake and commenting on how good it looked. Looks like I'll have to make this cake again soon, applying some changes to the recipe.

Since I followed the recipe from Annie's Eats and only made minor changes to the cake (I didn't add strawberry gelatin to the strawberry layer), I will direct you to her site which has all the detailed instructions and information you need to make this. Check it out HERE.

Ruffled Vanilla Celebration Cake

Since I wrote my last post on how to make macarons, I turned 16...yes, I aged a year! My birthday was this past weekend and even though I stayed home with my friends and family, I wanted to make a cake that has all the things I have ever wanted in one, including ruffles. I have always admired all the ruffle cakes I saw in the past, like this, this and this! Aren't they all pretty and perfect? Mine isn't too pretty like those ones, but I am happy enough with my first attempt. The strawberry swiss meringue buttercream was the real highlight of the cake because it was so delicious that it tasted like fresh strawberry ice cream. It was really light in texture and not too sweet or buttery (I decreased the amount of butter to only 200 grams and it worked!). It was the perfect choice for making ruffles on this cake. The traditional buttercreams use too much icing sugar to stiffen it up, which gives it an unpleasant gritty, overly sweet and buttery taste. That's why I rarely use it anymore.

At first, I couldn't decide what cake to bake since it was only going to be for me and my little family. I had some strawberries leftover so it became the perfect opportunity to try piping ruffles with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream. My main inspiration for this cake came from Diamonds for Dessert's ruffle blogiversary cake. Her post convinced me that ruffles aren't that hard or time consuming to create and perfect. But really, I had some difficulties with it since it was my first attempt. I piped the ruffles the first time and it ended up looking messy and uneven, so I scraped it off and started again. The second time round it came out okay but was still not as perfect as I wanted it to be. I figured out that it already looked good enough and I was tired of the thought of doing it again. 

I used the same white cake recipe from the White Vanilla Cake with Macarons because it turned out fluffy, moist and vanilla-y which would pair really well with the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream. But this time the cake turned out a little dry, so maybe next time I should try another recipe. Nonetheless, the strawberry jam in between the layers helped moisten it a little and added a beautiful flavour to the cake. The cake really did taste wonderful and I was very happy to have finally made a ruffle cake. The ruffles took up so much frosting though, so you would need to make a lot more for a larger cake. Just in case you were wondering, this mini cake is 5 and 3/4 inches in size which is perfect for a celebration to serve a small (I mean tiny) crowd of people.

White Vanilla Cake from Joy of Baking.

Makes 4 thin layer, 5 and 3/4 inch cake (if you want a larger cake, you should increase the recipe by 1.5 or 2 times)

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 and 3/4 cups of cake/plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

113 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 cup of milk

1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line with baking paper the bottom and grease one 31.1 x 20.6 cm rectangular sheet pan. If you're doing a larger cake, prepare two or three 8 inch cake pans.

2. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into different bowls and set aside.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

4. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft for about 1-2 minutes and add 3/4 cups of sugar to the butter, beating until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and mix again.

5. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture in three additions, starting and ending with the flour.

6. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Slowly add 1/4 cup of sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.

7. Gently fold a little of the meringue into the cake batter to lighten it first with a rubber spatula, and then fold in the remaining egg whites into the mixture until combined. Try not to over-mix or the batter will deflate.

8. Put the batter into the prepared pan/pans and smooth the surface with a small offset spatula. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

9. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely before assembling.

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from Diamonds for Dessert. (You would have to increase the recipe by about 1.5 or 2 times for a larger cake since the ruffles use lot of frosting)

Ingredients:

4 egg whites at room temperature

1 and 1/4 cups of sugar

200 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature (the original recipe stated 339 grams of butter which is totally unnecessary since I tried adding a little less than 2 sticks of butter, which still worked perfectly!)

1 and 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries, pureed

Method:

1. Simmer some water in a small saucepan on the stove. Mix the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and put it over the pot so that it fits well. Whisk the mixture until it is hot and the sugar has fully dissolved (dip your fingers into the egg whites and rub them together, if it feels gritty, keep whisking).

2. Remove the bowl from the heat and pour into a bowl of an electric mixer. Alternatively, you could just leave it in the bowl if you are using a hand-held electric mixer. Beat on a medium high speed until stiff peaks form and the bowl has cooled down to room temperature for about 10 minutes.

3. Cut up the butter into small pieces and add them to the mixture a few pieces at a time, waiting for the butter pieces to incorporate before adding any more. Continue beating for a few minutes, and add the strawberry puree a little at a time to allow it to slowly incorporate. If the mixture turns out soupy after a couple of minutes of beating, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. After beating again it might curdle, but just keep your hopes high and continue to beat the mixture until it turns into a silky smooth buttercream. Add a few drops of pink food colouring if desired. Best used immediately.

Assembly:

1. If making a small cake, create a template for the cakes on a sheet of paper. Use a compass to draw a circle of 5 and 3/4 inches in diameter and cut the stencil out. Then use a knife to cut out 2 circles from the rectangular cake and cut both circles horizontally in half. If making a larger cake, skip this step.

2. Put a cake layer on a cake board or a baking paper circle. Spread a small amount of strawberry jam on the cake and smooth it out with an ofset spatula.

3. Now dollop a scoop of frosting using an ice cream scoop or a large spoon and smooth the frosting out evenly.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the other layers until you have a nice staked tower of cake. Apply a thin layer of frosting on the outside of the whole cake to act as a crumb coat. It doesn't have to be too neat, the ruffles will cover it up later. This also keeps the crumbs from mixing into the frosting. Refridgerate the cake for 30 minutes or until firm.

5. Place a petal tip (I used no.104) in a piping bag. Fill the piping bag with the remaining buttercream.

6. Hold the piping bag vertically along the side of the cake with the fat part of the tip facing towards the cake and the thin part facing towards you. Apply pressure and squeeze the bag while piping in a back and forth motion until you reach the top, while making sure that the ruffles stick to the cake. Repeat until the whole cake is covered. If you would like to see how it is being done, check out this helpful video by Sweet and Saucy. She made it look so easy!

7. To finish, pipe ruffles on the top as a border (I would have liked to fully cover the top of the cake, but I had no more frosting left. Instead, I scattered the top with some multi-coloured heart confetti. Sprinkles makes everything look better!

Pink Banana Layer Cake

The design of this cake was certainly unexpected. I was supposed to pipe pink buttercream flowers to decorate the top of the cake, but I changed the plan when the flowers started to melt and my wrist started to ache when I tried piping again. The colour of the outside of the cake wasn't supposed to be pink too. It just happened to be that the pink buttercream flowers didn't work out, so I had to coat the cake with pink frosting. Then an idea suddenly popped in my mind when I was trying to figure out on how to decorate the top of the cake: Marshmallow flowers. Why not? I know the flowers don't look  right, but they do resemble them a little. It may also look a little childish and silly, but in the end I was happy with it, except when some of the marshmallow petals decided not to stick together anymore.

I didn't intend on making a banana cake too. I was setting out a plan on baking a red velvet cake this week, which is something I have never made before. But the overripe bananas in the fruit bowl had my mother asking me to make something with it before they turn into black, mouldy fruit. The banana cake with cream cheese frosting recipe from Taste.com.au was one of the first cakes I made a few years ago when I was a beginner in baking. I wanted to change the basic recipe a little and turn it into a layer cake by increasing the amount of ingredients by 1.5 times. This ensured that I had three nice, slightly tall layers instead of just one large layer. I rarely bake cakes that have one layer anymore.

The pictures in this post look a little different and 'unnatural' because when I made the cake, it was a dark, cloudy day. What I don't like about cloudy days is that they make me sad and lazy and they aren't so good when it comes to providing natural light for taking photos. So I had no choice but to use bright artifical light, which in the end turned out better than I thought. This cake also reminds me of the Brown Butter Pink Ombre Daisy Cake with Strawberry Jam from Raspberri Cupcakes. Although I didn't attempt at making an ombre icing, the pink colour and the flowers on top make it look similar to her cake (but it is so much better than mine).

The cake tasted pretty good with a great banana flavour. It is slightly dense and on the heavy side, but since it is a banana cake, it isn't fluffy and light like a vanilla cake would. And it was a bit too sweet for me since the frosting and marshmallows were already quite sweet themselves. Hence, I recommend reducing the amount of sugar in the cake to 1 cup instead of 1 and a half. I'll leave it up to you if you decide to make this banana cake. The flavour is great and the cake is moist but if you're looking for one with a lighter crumb, I'd say this cake isn't for you. Anyway, I'll be back soon with another post next week!

Banana Layer Cake adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients:

187.5 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 large mashed bananas
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
150 ml of milk
337 grams (2 and 1/4 cups) of self-raising flour (or add about 2 teaspoons of baking powder to plain flour)
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (356 degrees F). Grease and line three 8 inch cake tins with baking/parchment paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract, mashed bananas and milk and stir to incorporate.
3. Sift the flour and baking soda into the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter or the cake will come out tough and dry.

4. Divide the batter evenly into three cake pans and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in tins for 10 minutes, before allowing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Make the best-ever-frosting, which is the cooked flour frosting with the cream cheese added (or you can use any type of frosting you like, cream cheese frosting is another good one).
6. Assemble the cake by spreading 3/4 cups of frosting on each layer, working your way up to the final third layer. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting and put it in the fridge to set for 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, make the marshmallow flowers by taking a few marshmallows and cutting them horizontally into two or three halves (it depends on the size of the marshmallows). Press the sticky side of the marshmallow halves in sprinkles and pinch five pieces together to make a flower. Repeat with the rest of the marshmallows.
8. Colour the rest of the frosting pink with a little pink food gel colouring. Frost the outside of the whole cake with the remaining frosting evenly and smooth it out. Top with the marshmallow flowers. Best served at room temperature.

White Vanilla Cake with Macarons

This may be one of the best cakes I've ever made. It's pretty, elegant and most of all, really delicious. And I made it within 3 hours, which was a mad rush to bake the cake layers, make the macarons, whip up the frosting, assemble the cake and frost the whole thing before my friends came over. I know, I should have planned it earlier and started a day ahead because my macarons didn't turn out right. I was devastated to see the poor, cracked with no crinkly feet macarons looking like mini whoopie pies when I took them out of the oven. But in the end I still used them, because they just tasted so good. I didn't let them set long enough to dry as I didn't have enough time. Lesson learned.

The main inspiration for the macaron topping came from the Balsamic Strawberry Butter Cake by Steph of Raspberri Cupcakes (I am her no.1 fan of her blog!). My cake is no where near as perfect as her cake (and all of her other amazing cakes) and I should have topped the cake with more macarons too. The frosting on the cake isn't super smooth because I didn't bother spending more time on that, and those air bubbles from whipping so much made it even harder to smooth out. Speaking of frosting, I used my go-to recipe: Perfect buttercream frosting, minus the cream cheese. This never lets me down and always impresses with its light and not-too-sweet whipped cream taste...yum.

For the cake, I used the recipe from Joy of Baking, which is great for me because it uses the egg whites and egg yolks. It is more complicated than just mixing the ingredients together, because you have to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold it through the cake batter. But, it's totally worth it when it comes out of the oven, because it creates a beautiful light, moist and buttery crumb that tastes oh so vanilla. I also carefully increased the recipe by 1.5 times, so that I could have a third layer. And it turned out just as it should which made me really happy, unlike my attempt at a third layer on the Chocolate Delight Cake.

The macarons are the star on this cake even though they weren't as perfect as I had hoped. I recently bought the "Macarons Chic & Delicious French Treats" book by Annie Rigg from the bookstore, and it is an beautiful little book full of stunning pictures and ideas for making various flavours of macarons. I adapted one of the ideas to flick some red liquid food colouring on the unbaked macarons (a genius idea!), which gave it a Jackson Pollock effect. It gave it a pretty colour on an otherwise plain macaron. I was also going to make heart shaped macarons but I ended up piping the regular round shapes, so I'd love to try it the next time I make another batch.

White cake recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Makes one-3 layer 8 inch cake.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs, separated

262 grams cake flour (about 2 and 3/4 cups) or use plain flour and replace 4 tablespoons of the flour with cornflour

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon of salt

170 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 and 1/2 cups (300 grams) of sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of milk

1/8 plus half of 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Macarons recipe from 'Macaron Chic & Delicious French Treats' by Annie Rigg.

Makes about 20 filled macarons

Ingredients:

200 g (1 and 1/2 cups) icing/ confectioners'/ powdered sugar

100 g (2/3 cup) ground almonds

120-125 g egg whites (about 3 eggs)

a pinch of salt

3 tablespoons of sugar

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease and line three 8 inch round cake tins with baking paper.

2. Separate the eggs, reserving both the egg yolks and egg whites and set aside in covered bowls.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

4. Beat butter with an electric mixer until soft and add 1 cup of the sugar. Continue to beat until creamy and fluffy.

5. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing after each addition and add the vanilla extract to beat until combined.

6. Add the flour mixture and milk in three additions, alternating between each to make sure the flour is added in the beginning and end.

7. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.

8. Gradually add the remaining sugar (1/2 cup) and keep beating until it forms stiff peaks.

9. Gently fold a little of the egg whites in the cake batter with a rubber spatula and then add the rest, mixing until combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter otherwise it will deflate.

10. Evenly divide the batter between the three prepared cake tins (weigh the batter if you want to have exactly even layers) and bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center is clean. Cool the cakes in the tins for 10 mins and let them completely cool. Cover the layers with plastic wrap and place them in a freezer for at least an hour to make it easier for assembly.

For the macarons:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (338 degrees F). Sift the icing sugar and ground almonds in a mixing bowl and set aside.

2. Whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer in a clean bowl. Add the salt and continue to beat until it just holds a stiff peak. Add the sugar a teaspoonful at a time and mix well between each addition. It should form a thick, white and glossy meringue.

3. Fold the icing sugar and ground almond mixture into the egg whites until combined and smooth.

4. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe even circles on the baking/parchment paper lined baking trays, about 2 inches across in diameter.

5. Tap the bottom of the trays sharply to remove any large air bubbles. Dip a clean toothbrush in some red liquid food colouring and flick the bristles over the macarons to colour them (the food colouring may splash quite a bit).

6. Leave the macarons for at least 15 minutes to an hour, until they become dry and have set. They should not feel wet or sticky when tested with your finger.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes until the tops are crisp and the bottoms are dry. Let them cool completely after baking.

8. Fill the macarons with some buttercream, jam, ganache or frosting (I used some leftover frosting from the cake) and sandwich them together.

To assemble the cake,

1. Fill the cake with about 1/2 cup of frosting on each layer (I used my favourite buttercream frosting here), stacking them layer by layer and frosting the outside of the cake. Put it in the fridge to set for at least an hour. Top the cake with macarons just before serving and serve at room temperature.