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. 

The Best Vanilla Cupcake

This rarely happens to me. You know, when you first taste test a cupcake and then fall in love at first bite. In fact, I'm convinced it's the best vanilla cupcake like, ever. And being myself, the ever experimental baker, I wanted to find another vanilla cupcake recipe that's fail proof with an authentic vanilla kick. So within my 2 years of baking, I've tested many vanilla cupcake recipes I dug out from the internet but this one from Cupcake Project's popular Vanilla Cupcake recipe is certainly crowned the best above the rest. It's got a super soft crumb that melts into your mouth with a true vanilla flavour that's hard to beat. I'm not exaggerating, its the truth. And I strongly suggest you try it, if you haven't already.

And what about the topping to match this perfectly baked vanilla cupcake? Ah yes, and since I am considerate for those who I bake for, I turned to my mother for the details:

Mum: "I want something with white chocolate"
Me: "Like a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting?"
Mum: "No....WHITE chocolate not the one from cocoa beans"
Me: "Okeydokey, the ultimate white chocolate cupcake it is...*runs off to get the white chocolate*

Actually, after the conversation I decided to change it to a vanilla cupcake with white chocolate frosting, as I figured it would be too much of one ingredient. With the white chocolate frosting, I landed into this recipe from Not So Humble Pie that A: involves cream cheese and B: has lots of white chocolate. Perfect. I am quite aware of the effects cream cheese has on piping, but I like that its tangy flavour cuts out some of the sweetness. Unfortunately it came out super sweet, I guess loads of white chocolate + icing sugar = SWEET HEAVENS. So, to solve the problem, I dabbed a little icing on the cupcake and was randomly hit with a brilliant idea of covering it with sprinkles. I mean, who doesn't like sprinkles? It screams fun and celebration when you look at it. It reminds me of the epicness that is fairy bread from my childhood really.

Since I was making this for two people, I slightly modified the recipe by halving the ingredients, and substituting yoghurt for sour cream. This turned out wonderful, so much so, my mother stood up, declared it one of the best cupcakes ever and rated it five stars (excluding the frosting). Oh, and before I leave for another cupcake, here's a little swirl of sweet white chocolate buttercream....

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.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

Hello! I've been absent for the past few weeks (again) but during that time, I was searching for a new mixer since my old one became useless for baking. I was thinking of getting a KitchenAid mixer, since so many bakers own one, but its expensive price put me off. So when I couldn't decide between the Sunbeam Planetary Mixmaster and the Breville Scraper Mixer Pro, I chose Breville because of the great reviews it had and the features which stood out to me. And can I tell you that was the best decision I have ever made! I am so happy and proud to be the owner of such an amazing mixer. It does all the work for me and makes baking a breeze. Now I have a second helper in the kitchen. So to celebrate the purchase of my new mixer, I made some vanilla cupcakes with caramel swiss meringue buttercream.

The picture above is of course, none other than my shiny new mixer! I am so in love with it and the sound of the motor is so quiet that I can concentrate on doing other things. It also has a count up or down timer which is handy to prevent overmixing and to indicate how long it has been mixing. It whips icing wonderfully, creams butter and sugar until light and fluffy in seconds, and mixes cake batter thoroughly. Oh and did I mention that it came with an ice cream bowl? Yep, it makes ice cream in just 10-20 minutes. I'm getting a little carried away here with my mixer, so let's talk cupcakes!

I had found The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake bookmarked in my browser which I intended to try before but didn't have the chance to, so it was a great opportunity to try the recipe with my new mixer. It requires quite a few more ingredients than your average vanilla cupcake, but when mixed together, it produces vanilla-y, light and fluffy cupcakes that matches really well with the caramel buttercream. Talking about swiss meringue buttercream, adding caramel sauce to it transforms it from ordinary to something special with a rich caramel flavour that melts in your mouth. The unbelievably silky smooth, not too sweet texture makes swiss meringue buttercream among the best frostings to use for cakes and cupcakes.

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake adapted from the Cupcake Project.

Makes 16 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 and 3/4 cups of cake flour (plain/all-purpose flour is fine)

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

57 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Prepare the cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners.

2. In a medium bowl or bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt until well combined.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla extract until combined and smooth.

4. Add the butter and mix on a medium-low speed for about three minutes. This will turn into a fine crumb texture.

5. Slowly add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, beating on a medium speed until just incorporated.

6. Slowly add the milk to the batter and mix on a low speed until just combined.

7. Fill the cupcake liners until just over half full. Bake in the oven for 14 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. If they are not done, check them again in 2 minutes. They should be white in colour but not golden brown. Remove them from the pan immediately and allow to cool completely before decorating.

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream adapted from Martha Stewart.

Ingredients:

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1/4 cup of water

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

180 grams of unsalted butter, chopped into pieces and softened at room temperature

Method:

1. Place 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar and the water in a medium saucepan and boil at a medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan ocasionally until it turns into a dark amber caramel. Wash the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent the sugar crystals from forming. Remove from the heat, and whisk the cream into the caramel until smooth. Set aside to cool.

2. Place the egg whites and remaining sugar into a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk the egg whites until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot to touch. If you have a candy thermometer, it should reach 160 degrees when inserted into the mixture.

3. Remove from the heat, and transfer the mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on a medium speed for about 5 minutes. Increase the speed to medium high and whisk until glossy, stiff peaks form for about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, and add the pieces of butter one at a time, waiting for them to incorporate before adding the next piece. Whisk in the vanilla until combined. If the mixture is soupy, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes and whisk again. It will likely to come to the curdled stage, but keep whisking until it turns into a smooth buttercream. 

4. Switch to the paddle attachment. Mixing on a low speed, add the caramel slowly and beat until smooth, for about 3-5 minutes. Best used immediately.

Decorate the cooled cupcakes with the buttercream, using a 1M star tip. Top with sprinkles if desired.

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!

Strawberries and Cream Macarons

The title of this post says it all. These macarons are filled with a custard-cream that encases a hidden dollop of the best quality strawberry jam. You might have seen these from my last post on how to make macarons. You might have not. Either way, these delicate treats are certainly delicious when filled with a creamy, vanilla-y thick cream. Just what I need to serve an elegant afternoon tea with the girls. Oh, and some organic tea or hot chocolate to go with it too.

 

Instead of using strawberry jam, you could use fresh pureed strawberries with a little sugar added to it to give it a fresh strawberry scent that is perfect when paired with the cream in the macarons. I must admit that I am a little disappointed with the colour of my macarons since they were over-baked. It makes them look brown and ugly, hiding the real beauty of the macarons. But putting them in pretty cupcake liners adds a touch of cuteness and probably also hides my mistake, right? Next time when I make another batch of macarons, I will be in the kitchen watching closely at the oven door the whole time. That should solve my problem of over-baking macaron shells.

For the macaron recipe and a tutorial on how to make them, click here.

Vanilla Custard Cream Filling
Adapted from the book, Macarons: Chic and Delicious French Treats

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks (saved from the last batch of macarons)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cornflour/cornstarch
1 cup of milk
1 vanilla pod/bean or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of thickened cream

Method:
1. Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a heatproof bowl until combined.

2. Heat the milk with the vanilla in a small saucepan until it just starts to boil.

3. Pour the hot milk over the egg yolk mixture and stir until incorporated.

4. Put the mixture back into the pan and simmer gently over a low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and will coat the back of a spoon. Heat it slowly and gently and remove it from the heat immediately after it is ready. Be careful not to boil it too much otherwise it will curdle.

5. Strain the mixture into a clean bowl and add the butter, stirring until it has melted and incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to cool before refridgerating.

6. Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks and fold it into the custard. Chill before filling the macarons.

When done, the custard/cream should look thick and creamy like the one in the picture above. The colour of the filling depends on the type of sugar you use. My filling is kind of a brown colour because I used brown sugar so if you use white sugar, it should look like whipped cream.

After filling the macarons with the cream and strawberry jam, you should refridgerate them for 30 minutes before serving. Don't store the filled macarons in the fridge otherwise they will go soggy from the custard. Store them separately and fill them before serving.

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.

Multi-coloured Rainbow Cake

Okay, so this might look like an ugly, huge, or whatever you can call it cake covered with swiss meringue buttercream and some sprinkles on top. I know, I am quite embarrased to show you my  poor cake-making skills especially in smoothing out frosting, since I haven't had enough time to practice. The first EVER layer cake I made was a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and it was a huge disaster when I assembled them. As I was rushing and being impatient at the same time, I didn't bother to wait for the cakes to cool down and started slathering the icing on top. Big mistake! The warm cake layers melted the icing and started sliding off each other and cracking into two. It looked like a huge blob of chocolate cake at the end and my friends backed off a bit, but luckily it tasted delicious! Well, there's a little of my unfortunate baking history there.

The frosting on the cake here isn't completely white because of the pesky crumbs that made their way into the icing. I was a bit sloppy and wasn't really worried about getting cake crumbs in the frosting. Next time I really have to be more careful. I've learnt so much techniques through the internet and have come to realise how time consuming layer cakes can be. It takes me hours to make a layer cake which is pretty much why I don't make them so often. But I am going to spare more time to dedicate it for baking cakes. I also bake layer by layer and this makes it a little more difficult because you would have to weigh each of the divided batter so they would be equal when baked. Then you will have to wait for them to completely cool down before assembling them.

Here I equally divided the batter and added some food gel colouring to each. Actually, I only had 4 colours so I mixed green and blue for a kind of turquoise colour and pink and purple to make lavender. I think the colours turned out well when baked except the blue colour. It turned GREEN. I have no idea why when I bake blue tinted cakes they seem to turn green when baked. But I suspect it might have something to do with baking powder/soda. Does anyone know what happened? Anyway, I'll show you what it looks inside the cake...

Tada! Not bad for the second attempt. Can you see that the top layer above the lavender was supposed to be blue when it turned out green? My first attempt at a rainbow cake was bad, really bad. It was too sweet, too buttery, too ugly...I don't want to give you any more details about it, thank you very much. I was quite surprised to see the layers there when I carefully cut the first piece. All my friends were so impressed with the colours. Even one said that it was too pretty to eat! The layers are a little slanted though, which makes the cake domed, but that really didn't matter because it tasted so fluffy and delicious.

I got the idea from the most popular and best design of  modern cake history: Whisk Kid's Super Epic Rainbow Cake. If you've never seen or even heard of the rainbow cake, well, you must have been hiding in a hole. It is everywhere on the internet. Search on google and you'll have so many results of rainbow cakes. I've seen so many bakers try it out and that was to the point that I had to make my own.

The recipe states that you would need to use 9 egg whites and 452 grams of butter for the frosting, which I decided was waaaay too much. I wasn't prepared to use and eat 9 eggs and 4 sticks of butter! So I just stuck with 5 egg whites to frost and thinly spread it between the layers. 226 grams of butter is enough fat for me. I also added some strawberry jam to each layer and that gave it a beautiful flavour and moistness to the cake. You can use any jam you like; apricot, raspberry, grape...

Adapted from Whisk Kid's Super Epic Rainbow Cake.

Multi-coloured Rainbow Cake

Ingredients for white cake:
226 grams (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups (400 g) sugar
5 egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons of vanilla
3 cups (426 g) flour
4 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 1/2 cups (355 ml) milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temperature
6 different food gel colours

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C or 350 degrees F. Grease and line cake pans with baking paper (I had two 8 inch pans).

2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Separate the eggs and keep the egg whites all in one bowl and set aside.

3. Cream the sugar and butter in an electic mixer until light and fluffy, then slowly add the egg whites a little at a time and the vanilla until fully incorporated. Mix in the flour mixture and milk alternating between each in 2 parts so it forms a smooth, white cake batter.

4. Divide the batter into six bowls which is about 1 cup each OR weigh the batter by weighing the empty mixing bowl and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final weight of the batter in it. Divide the number by six and add that weight of batter to each bowl to ensure equal layers. Add your desired food gel colours to each bowl until it is the shade you want.

5. Pour the batter in the prepared pans and bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes each until the skewer inserted comes out clean. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing them and allowing them to rest and cool completely on a wired rack or put them in the fridge to speed up the cooling process. You wouldn't want to work with warm or unsettled cake layers!

Swiss Meringue Buttercream to frost, thinly fill and crumb coat

Ingredients:
5 egg whites
1 cup (200 grams) of sugar
226 grams (2 sticks) of butter, chopped into small pieces and at room temperature
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Cook the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl over a small simmering saucepan of water) and whisk constantly over medium heat until fully dissolved. The mixture should be hot and when you rub it between your fingers, it is smooth with no grains of sugar.

2. Pour into another bowl and whip the mixture with an electric mixer on high speed until it comes to room temperature and it turns to stiff peaks. Slowly add the pieces of butter while whisking on medium speed one after the other when one piece is fully incorporated. When the all the butter is added, whisk on a high speed until it is smooth and has come together nicely for about 5 minutes. If it is soupy, put it in the fridge for 10 mins and whisk again. If it becomes curdled, just keep whisking and it will eventually turn into a silky smooth buttercream.

3. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Use it straight away.

Assembly:

1. Stack the cakes in your preferred order and add a thin layer of jam to each, followed by a small amount of the buttercream. Keep filling and stacking until you reach the top, crumb coat with a thin layer of frosting on the top and sides to seal in the crumbs and refridgerate for about 15 minutes.

2. Frost the cake with the remaining buttercream and smooth it out with an offset spatula running under hot water. Add sprinkles on top of the cake if you like or sprinkle it with any other topping.

3. Put it in the fridge to rest overnight and bring it to room temperature when it is ready to serve. This will soften the frosting as it is hard and buttery when cold.