Colin’s birthday cake order was a big one this year…
He wanted my vanilla butter cookie cake with chocolate butter cream icing but then wanted a smaller cake on top of that one with strawberry icing.
I am also starting to think that I need to invest in a few cake decorating tools and air conditioning. It was hot yesterday, 37 C (99F) with the humidity and even though I let everything cool it didn’t take long for the icing to start melting off the cake as I tried to decorate it using an ill fitted spatula and butter knife, but the result looked way better than I would have imagined and it tasted even better than it looked…
The first thing I did was to make full recipe, plus a half recipe of my favourite Vanilla cake which is made with real vanilla, butter and coconut milk giving it a butter cookie taste that I can’t get enough of.
Vanilla Butter Cookie cake
(recipe for one two layer cake)
- 2¼ cups cake flour (I never have this so I use Joy the Baker’s substitute for cake flour)
- 1 cup coconut milk, at room temperature
- 6 large egg whites (¾ cup), at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pan (grease and the flour)
2. Mix coconut milk, egg whites, and vanilla in a small bowl.
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl or mixer bowl. Add butter and beat at slow speed (or use forks) until mixture resembles moist crumbs. (like when making pie dough)
4. Add all but ½ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed for 1½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
5. Pour batter in prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes depending on size of the pan.
As I said, I made the full recipe plus a half recipe and poured 2/3 of the batter in my 9 inch round cake pan and then poured the rest into a 7 inch round pan and while it was in the oven I made the chocolate Butter cream frosting and then put aside and made a half recipe of strawberry icing, which was not only easy to make but the taste surpassed my expectations…
Those went straight into the fridge to use when the cake would be cool.
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 2/3 cups icing sugar, sifted with
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup coconut milk or cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1. cream the butter
2. sift together sugar and cocoa and add to butter and start mixing
3. add vanilla
4. while mixing, start adding the coconut milk or cream until you reach the desired consistency.
Beat with mixer for at least 2 min…
Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 2/3 cups icing sugar
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup strawberry puree (I made it with fresh strawberries and my hand wand)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1. cream the butter
2. sift together sugar and cocoa and add to butter and start mixing
3. add vanilla
4. while mixing, start adding the strawberry puree until you reach the desired consistency.
Beat with mixer for at least 2 min…
I cut each of the two cakes into two layers and spread both chocolate and strawberry icing onto the first layer of the cake and added the top and iced it as if I just had one cake and then on a separate plate I iced the second tier (the smaller cake) as if was just a cake on its own also and then with one calculated swoop I placed the smaller cake on top of the larger one and added a bit more icing for good measure and then added a few fresh plump strawberry halves…
The Birthday boy was so happy!
