For example, you can break up the cake and pour over an egg and cream custard mixture and re-bake for “cake and butter pudding”.

Or you can crumb up the cake and use it as the base for your in-between layer filling. In this case, to sandwich the 15 and 20cm cakes, I used a plain chocolate ganache (160ml pouring cream, 100g 60% cocoa chocolate, 60g milk chocolate) with 2 1/2 cups of hazelnut cake crumb to make a cake truffle filling.

Its quite delicious this filling, nearly worth sacrificing a cake for – and when your cakes rise too much in the center you can use the trimmings in the filling – so it’s delicious AND thrifty!

This post is really about what happened to the cakes after they got layered up.

Ruffles are rather in vogue these days, and I have been a little taken with the look of Peggy Porschen’s Madame de Pompadour cake. A baby shower seemed the perfect opportunity to give the icing technique a try!

I used an Italian buttercream flavoured with freeze dried strawberry powder and vanilla for the icing. The recipe is below.

The cakes were coated with a thin layer of buttercream to seal them. Pay more attention to smoothing the top surfaces because these will remain exposed, particularly the top tier.

The piping nozzle to use is called a “ribbon” tip. Mine is made by Ateco and is a #9311. The nozzle is about 1cm in diameter. This I fitted into my trusty 18inch piping bag, and half filled it with buttercream. Because the buttercream is relatively heat sensitive, it is important not to have too much in the bag at any one time, otherwise the dregs of the buttercream will be sure to be a soupy mess! We don’t want that!

To make ruffles, you can use the tip in an upside down smileyface orientation, or a smileyface one :-)! The ruffles below are made with the 

 🙁 configuration – that is, with the rounded edge of the nozzle facing up.

Then, starting at the bottom of the tier, you gently squeeze the piping bag and move the nozzle up then down in a slightly overlapping motion, working towards the top of the cake. The nozzle does all the work, creating flounces of buttercream.

For a tiered cake, you need to work on the top tier first, then the bottom tier. This prevents the movement of the nozzle at the base of the top tier from messing up the pretty scalloped edges formed at the top of the line of ruffles (see the third picture below).

As you can see, the base layer of the buttercream can be pretty ugly, as it all gets covered up! (There is also a confession below as to why this particular cake has such a messy under layer). Once all the ruffles are on, nobody would ever guess!  



Oh yes, I promised a confession. It is this. I originally coated these cakes quite tidily with a buttercream layer, and executed the ruffles using the nozzle in the smileyface orientation. This leads to a pattern of ruffles which more closely resemble curtain flounces as seen below. Personally I think this is a clumsier look, but it may have its place in cake decorating annals. Just not My Place!



But how is there photographic evidence of the Other Orientation? It is a sad tale. After photographing the cake as originally configured, I was manoeuvring the cake back to its storage container, and in doing so tipped the cake stand…
The cake did not hit the floor.
I caught it.
Hooray for me.
As you can imagine, the icing, and some of the handmade cherry blossoms, didn’t exactly exit from this escapade unscathed.

The good news is Italian buttercream is really forgiving. I carefully scraped the cake of all the ruffles, and started again…

Even domestic goddesses have bad days.

xx
Kadri

Italian Buttercream

Makes about 700g  – you’ll need most of it for the above cake.

300g sugar
150mL water
150g egg whites
75g sugar, extra
455g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 2cm cubes
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder (or more, to taste)

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan over heat, allowing the sugar to dissolve. Bring to boil, cook until syrup reaches 116 degrees Celsius on a candy thermometer (also known as the softball stage, but I always use a candy thermometer).
While the syrup is cooking (it takes about 8 minutes), beat the eggwhites in a large bowl (preferably of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment) to aerate, then add extra sugar. Beat until soft peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat.
As soon as sugar syrup reaches correct temperature, remove from heat and add to eggwhites, by pouring a thin stream of syrup down the side of the bowl while the mixer is running on full speed.
Once all the syrup is incorporated, continue to beat the meringue until it is cool and fluffy.
Swap the whisk attachment for a K or paddle attachment, and add the butter, a cube at a time, beating constantly. When all the butter is incorporated, add the flavourings.
If the buttercream seems too grainy or curdled, place the bowl in hot water for about 30 seconds, then beat again, and repeat until buttercream is smooth and silky. If the buttercream is too soupy, refrigerate the mixture for a while and beat again.
The buttercream can be kept refrigerated for a couple of weeks in an airtight container, or frozen for a month. It needs to be gently warmed and re-beaten until smooth before use.