Have I mentioned I love cake? If I haven’t – I seriously ADORE it (a fact about which all my friends tease me). But I think I’m coming to the point in my life where I actually enjoy making cake more than I do eating it. (Oh goodness! Have I now scandalized my sweet tooth?!) It’s just so fun to put together a sweet treat completely from scratch and dress it up to make it all pretty. And then give it away or share it of course. And this vanilla cake with lilacs and buttercream is the perfect recipe to accomplish just that.

This recipe is tasty, but to me, it’s really more about the simple and elegant presentation. I have a soft spot for lilacs – they remind me of those long, warm days at the end of each of my college years in the humid Midwest, the fragrance following as you brushed past them, their little flowers scattering like nature’s confetti, celebrating the new things coming your way. So I knew when they bloomed again I wanted to be at the ready with a cake to show them off and let them take center stage.

Lilac blooms are, unfortunately, not that long lasting (but their fleeting nature makes us love and appreciate them that much more, right?), so make sure to plan ahead if you know you’d like to use lilacs in your presentation as well.

This particular cake recipe uses only egg whites in the batter to keep the cake from turning too yellow, which can happen if you use yolks It’s a pretty easy cake recipe to put together, but if you are baking it in three thick layers as I did with this recipe, just be mindful of not OVERbaking, since you don’t want to end up with dry cake. (I use these great little cake pans for my small, 6″ cakes.)

After making your cakes, you have the option to either get to layering and frosting right away, or you can refrigerate the layers for a bit until you’re ready to frost and decorate.

Also, if you’d prefer to keep the inside of your cake looking pristine and white when you slice into it, you can cut off the golden crust around the edges of the cake. I left mine on as I prefer more of an organic feel, and also that caramelization on the outside is tasty. :)

The buttercream used on this cake is a show-stopper, for sure. It’s silky, has a beautiful sheen and tastes delicious, with a light, sweet flavor, as opposed to a more sugary frosting. It also doesn’t taste “greasy,” which I find is key to a good buttercream. I’ve made some versions that are just far too heavy on the butter ratio, and I swear, I may as well have taken a giant bite out of a stick of butter and added a little cake to it. Yeah – that’s a terrible visual. But those recipes were traumatizing. Not so with this one – perfectly balanced and tasty.

Swiss meringue buttercream makes use of egg whites that are heated gently, and then whisked together with sugar to get a really sexy looking meringue that may tempt you to taste-test a few times (you know, for that ever-important quality control aspect of cake-making). You’ll want to get it to the “stiff peak” stage, which is shown in the above image.

You’ll then add in your butter chunks, but please be aware. You don’t want your butter too warm or the mixture will “curdle” and take on a somewhat lumpy texture. However, you don’t want your butter too cold either. (Traditional buttercreams are a little golidlocks-esque, aren’t they?)

The good news is that this can usually be easily fixed. My buttercream that is pictured in these images in this post actually curdled on me because the butter was too warm when I added it, but I just stuck the entire bowl of curdled buttercream into my fridge for about 20 minutes, pulled it out once it had cooled down, and then remixed. It might take a little time, but it all eventually ended up coming together perfectly. So don’t fret if this happens to you!

Upon completing your buttercream, have fun adding a little bit between each of your torted layers. (Prior to torting, remove any domed tops, too. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, torting means that I just sliced my three cakes in half to make six layers. I’ve found that this sweet knife makes torting an absolute breeze – it’s so important to have good knives! If you’d rather not split your cake into the mini layers, that’s totally fine, too, and will use less frosting. Keep in mind you will likely use every last bit of the buttercream in this recipe, so try to go sparingly. I probably put too much frosting in between my layers for this cake, which made the final frosting layers a little tricky to accomplish.

Once your cake is assembled, you’ll want to add a crumb coat to seal in any crumbs and keep them from showing in your final “show” layer. Try to go sparingly here, too. Afterwards, refrigerate your cake to really get that frosting layer nice and hard and easier to apply your final frosting layer to.

Now’s the fun part! Tint your frosting the color of your choice and frost away! I wanted mine to be a pale spring green to really show off the contrast between the lilacs, their bright green leaves, and the pale color of the frosting.

Gently wash your lilacs under lukewarm water to ensure you don’t have any added visitors joining you for cake. Gently blot the blooms dry with a paper towel or clean dish towel.

Top your room-temperature cake with the lilacs and serve! Make sure to top it right before serving so the blooms don’t wilt.

Enjoy your beautiful creation!

Vanilla Cake with Lilacs and Buttercream

 

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Author: Big Sky, Little Kitchen

Recipe type: Dessert

Makes: 3 thick cake layers, or 6 torted layers

Ingredients

White Cake

• 3¼ cups (375 g) cake flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2¼ cups (450 g) superfine sugar
• ¾ cup (170 g) cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1½ cups milk, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 7 large egg whites, room temperature

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting (makes 6 cups)

• 7 large egg whites (fresh eggs, not pasteurized whites from carton)
• 1¾ cups (350 g) granulated sugar
• 2 cups (455 g) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into cubes
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, or the seeds of ½ vanilla bean
• A pinch or two of salt, to taste

Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottoms of three 6x3-inch round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment cut to size.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add sugar. With mixer on low speed, add cold butter one piece at a time and beat until all butter is incorporated, about 3 minutes. The mixture should have a fairly fine texture.
3. In a medium measuring cup with a pouring spout, combine half the milk, the vanilla, and lemon juice. In a separate measuring cup, whisk egg whites and remaining milk.
4. Increase mixer speed to medium-low and slowly add the vanilla milk mixture and beat for 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the egg white mixture. Beat for 2 minutes, occasionally stopping to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
5. Fold the batter once or twice with a rubber spatula to ensure everything has been properly combined. Divide your batter evenly among your pans. (Use a kitchen scale to divide as evenly as possible.)
6. Bake the three layers in the center of the oven until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few crumbs attached, 24 to 30 minutes. Try not to overbake.
7. Let the layers cool in their pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Using a knife or small offset palette knife, loosen the sides of the cakes and carefully turn them out onto the wire racks. Peel off the parchment liners and let layers cool completely.
8. If not using cake layers immediately, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature or refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Buttercream

1. Wipe a stainless steel bowl, whisk, and whisk and paddle attachments of an electric mixer with a paper towel dampened with a bit of lemon juice to make sure all traces of grease have been removed. Add egg whites and sugar to the bowl, and place bowl over a pot of simmering water. Cook the mixture, whisking constantly but gently, until the temperature reaches 130 degrees F.
2. Upon reaching temperature, return bowl to mixer and fit with whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until the mixture reaches the stiff peak stage (it will be very thick and glossy). Decrease the speed to medium and beat until the bottom of the bowl is cool to touch, which will be about 10 minutes or longer.
3. Switch to the paddle attachment, and with the mixer running on low speed, add the butter in one piece at a time. (Be sure your butter is not TOO warm or your mixture will curdle. If your mixture appears curdled, place entire bowl in fridge for 15-20 minutes. Remove and beat mixture again.) Beat until the mixture is silky smooth. (This may take a while if your mixture has curdled.)
4. Add vanilla and salt, and beat on low speed for another two minutes. Scrape down the side of the bowl and beat again for another minute or two.

Notes

Cut off golden crust on cakes for a truly "white cake" presentation when sliced.
Store buttercream in fridge if not using right away. Re-beat upon removal to bring back to spreading consistency.
This is a very scant amount of buttercream for a 6-layer cake. Try to use it sparingly, or make more if you'd like to not have to scrimp on frosting.
Decorate with lilacs right before serving to ensure lilac flowers do not wilt.
Serve cake at room temperature.
Recipes barely, barely adapted from the awesome Sweetapolita Bakebook.

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Sometimes it’s just really nice to make a dessert that doesn’t serve an army of 5 gazillion. I love this recipe for small batch chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting for that very reason. They’re perfect for a small group, or you and your honey to share. Or maybe you make them all for yourself and space out your enjoyment over a couple of days. I won’t judge. ;)

When making these, I recommend using a cookie scoop to plop your batter into the cupcake liners – it’s just so much easier to keep your batter evenly distributed this way. And this particular batter recipe is very thick so it works great with this technique.

The most difficult thing you’ll likely run into with this recipe is waiting for the cupcakes to cool before frosting them with this yummy buttercream frosting.

If you’d like to make sumptuous swirls of frosting like what you see pictured here, I recommend following the frosting instructions as they are and using a piping bag with a large round tip to pipe your frosting onto your cooled cakes. If you’re not such a huge fan of frosting, you can cut the frosting recipe in half and you’ll be good to go.

Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

22 mins

Total time

52 mins

 

Author: Big Sky, Little Kitchen
Recipe barely adapted from The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook

Recipe type: Dessert

Makes: 4 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• ¼ cup (1¼ ounces) all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
• 1½ ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature
  OR 2 tablespoons Silk coconut milk + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup frosting

Frosting (makes about 2 cups):

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups (8 ounces) confectioner's sugar
• food coloring (optional)

Instructions

For the Cupcakes:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 4 cups of muffin tin (can be any of the cups) with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, microwave butter, chocolate, and cocoa at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth, about 1 minute. Be careful not to overheat the mixture. Let cool slightly.
4. Whisk sugar and egg together in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in milk and vanilla until combined. Whisk in cooled chocolate mixture until well combined.
5. Sift flour mixture over chocolate mixture in 2 additions, whisking gently after each addition until just a few streaks of flour remain (batter will be thick). Continue to whisk batter until most of the lumps are gone (but do not overmix).
6. Using a cookie scoop or dry measuring cup, divide batter evenly among prepared cupcake liners. Bake cupcakes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 18 to 22 minutes, making sure to rotate muffin tin halfway through baking.
7. Let cupcakes cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and let cool completely on rack, about 1 hour (or until cakes are cool to the touch and no residual warmth is detected).
8. Pipe a swirl of frosting onto each cooled cupcake and serve. Or, if you have halved the frosting recipe, spread 3 to 4 tablespoons of frosting over each cooled cupcake and serve.

For the Frosting:

1. Stir cream, vanilla, and salt together in bowl until salt dissolves.
2. Using hand-held mixer set at medium-high speed, beat butter in medium bowl until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
3. Reduce speed to medium-low, gradually add sugar, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
4. Add cream mixture and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
5. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
6. Optional: add a drop or two of food coloring to tint your frosting.

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