Cake

Happy Anniversary to Mum & Dad!

3/11/2007 11:26:00 AM




















Last week, we celebrated my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, for which I decided to bake an enormous cake. I didn't want to go with a usual big ol' chocolate cake (my mum is not that keen on chocolate), but still wanted something that looked celebratory. After much deliberation, I ended up choosing Tyler Florence's yellow butter cake with red fruits. I'm not sure which of his books it's printed in, but I found it in an old issue of Delicious magazine.

I was going to print the recipe here, but I seem to have misplaced that particular magazine. Oops. I'll rootle around for it and publish the recipe when I find it.

So, basically it's a butter cake, which you slice in half horizontally, (Tyler said to slice it in thirds, but I didn't want to tempt fate), and fill with frosting. The frosting, however, proved to be very difficult. To make it, you beat castor sugar, water and egg whites in a double boiler until dissolved. You transfer the mixture to an electric mixer, and add small cubes of butter one at a time, until the frosting is thick and fluffy and spreadable. Once that's done, you fold in a mixture of red berries, which have been cooked with sugar and vanilla.















I've never made frosting like this before, so I'm not quite sure where I went wrong - but it ended up grainy and slightly curdled-looking, and didn't set very well. I think that I didn't dissolve the castor sugar enough at the start, and that I added too much butter. I just followed the recipe, adding the entire amount of butter, but I probably should have just stopped adding butter when the frosting looked thick and lovely.

Oh well. I had no time to start again, so I just slapped the icing on, and shoved the whole thing in the fridge to (hopefully) set overnight. The next day - phew! - the icing had stayed on the cake, and looked passable. I decorated it with wicked gold buttons, to say "double happiness" (the Chinese character for marital happiness), and strew little sugar heart sprinkles over. A little OTT, yes. But it was their 30th!!
















I was really worried that the icing would taste totally munting, but it tasted ok, if a little grainy, and my parents liked it. Which is the most important thing.
















Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad!

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7 comments

  1. Happy Anniversay to Mum and Dad!

    Your cake looks very pretty, all heart speckled :)

    KJxx

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  2. Happy Anniversary to your parents!!
    That's a beautiful cake, and I can see you love them a lot -- to use all those gold buttons ;).
    Very nice!

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  3. Anonymous11:23 AM

    What a gorgeous way to say "Happy Anniversary"! Well done!

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  4. happy anniversary to your mum and dad, Sarah.

    love the idea of marking out the "double happiness" word with the gold buttons!!

    kc

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  5. Happy Anniversary to the Parents of one talented chef!!
    It looks delicious!

    I had a similar icing problem last weekend involving 100 cupcakes... Alas, they still proved to be a success and didnt last long!


    www.the-melburnian.blogspot.com

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  6. By the way, congrats on the mention in the Herald Sun! Now you have made it!

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  7. Sarah, that sponge looks soo lovely! And I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong with the frosting either ;) I bet it was really delicious. Happy anniversary to your parents!

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