cake

Mini Tutorial: Romantic Roses Cake

January 29, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

[This post is written in partnership with Satin Ice. All text and opinions are 100% mine. Thank you for supporting brands that help me and my business grow!]

Valentine’s Day is the inspiration behind this “mini” tutorial for my Romantic Roses cake. This cake is sponsored by my sweet friends over at Satin Ice. Their new buttercream icing mix was perfect for palette knife buttercream painting. While this is actually a fondant covered cake, mixed media elements like buttercream and royal icing techniques – such as palette knife painting, detailed piping, buttercream flowers, etc. look amazing together and allows you to incorporate several different techniques.

I’m calling this a “mini” tutorial because I’m sharing how I made this cake, but it’s not a step by step detailed tutorial. The idea is to share how I created this cake, and to share a technique and some information for you to be able to replicate it on your cakes. A reader wrote to me recently asking for me to keep in mind beginner cake tutorials when creating tutorials. I will most definitely be creating tutorials for ALL skill levels and ALL sorts of cakes – birthday cakes, wedding cakes, themed cakes, holiday cakes, etc. Keep in mind that many of the techniques featured in my full or mini tutorials can be applied to any size or style of cake, and many are perfect for all skill levels. Trust me, I’m going to do my best to not let any of you leave a post empty handed.

After determining that palette knife buttercream painting was definitely on the table for this cake, and Valentine’s Day was an underlying theme, my mind went to color next. I wanted to incorporate dark reds, pinks, and blush tones. And what screams Valentine’s Day more than ROSES? To keep with rose theme, I created hybrid tea roses, heirloom roses, David Austin garden roses, and little climbing roses and rose buds. I also added in some rose leaves and some twisty vines.

I used Satin Ice fondant for this cake, which I colored with Crystal Colors petal dust in Champagne and Blush, mostly equal parts. I wanted a blush color for the cake but I wanted it more of a cool, muted, vintage-y tone and not so harshly pink. I’ve been experimenting with using dusts for coloring fondant simply to get more of a targeted color. I find that it’s a bit more difficult to achieve the desired color if I’m using gel colors. Food safe dusts come in such a large variety of colors which allows me to achieve the color I’m aiming for much easier. However, if you don’t have these colors, you can use Americolor electric pink and Wilton brown to achieve a similar color. Avoid Americolor brown – there’s a bit too much orange in it. Incorporate very little color gradually since gels are more concentrated.

I used the same petal dusts to color my buttercream to match the fondant, which was fairly simple to do since the buttercream mix is pure white. Satin Ice buttercream mix comes as a soft dough. To the dough, you add butter or shortening and water to create an American style buttercream. The buttercream mix is very customizable to most projects. It’s stiff enough for piping flowers and ruffles, but you can also make it soft enough to mimic the same consistency as a meringue based buttercream, which happens to be my favorite buttercream to use. To get that consistency, I added water 1/2 teaspoon at a time until it was soft and smooth, like peanut butter.

Because I wanted my palette knife painting to be focused around the sugar flowers, I placed the sugar flowers first. Once the flowers were placed, I created buttercream “petals” around the flowers, by pressing the buttercream coated palette knife up against the cake and gently pulling down and away, to create a slightly grooved petal. Take care not to place your petals too symmetrical. The petals can be different sizes and don’t have to be perfectly neat. Consider creating your petals based on the shape you want your petals to have and direction you want your painting to go. Once I finished the painting, I added some white sugar dragees that I painted gold with a mix of clear alcohol and gold dust.

And really, that’s it. A super simple technique just to get acquainted with palette knife buttercream painting. I’m totally in love with the technique and can’t wait to do some palette knife buttercream flowers. Let me know if you try this out!

Check out these posts for more sugar art tutorials:

Gum Paste Blackberries, Leaves and Blossoms tutorial

Essential Tools for Making Sugar Flowers

Caramel Apple Coffee Cake

October 25, 2019 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Well hello there. It’s officially apple season and I am loving it. To me, baking with apples is so quintessentially fall. Pairing apples with cinnamon and caramel – now that’s when the magic happens. My caramel apple coffee cake is perfect for those chilly fall mornings with a fresh cup of hot coffee, or for an after dinner treat (also with coffee, because, well, coffee). The cake is rustic and beautiful and while it’s perfect for a snack cake, it also makes for an impressive sweet treat for the holidays. This caramel apple coffee cake consists of a sour cream cake batter topped with cinnamon sugar tossed apples and a sweet and crunchy pecan streusel topping and drizzled with salted caramel. The cake is simple to make and absolutely delicious.

I found this recipe in a stack of old recipes passed down from my great grandmother. It definitely required quite a bit of tweaking but it’s so awesome to be able to rework one of my great grandmother’s recipes. I learned a lot of my baking from her just by watching her as a child, long before I showed any interest in baking at all. It always fascinated me that she would make pies without recipes and measuring and they came out the same, perfect every time. I can only assume that came from years and years of baking practice.

So, on to making this caramel apple coffee cake.

The key to making the cake batter light and tender is room temperature ingredients and also making sure to adequately beat together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. I know we see the “beat until light and fluffy” terminology often, but it really is an important step, and one that is absolutely necessary for helping create the texture of your cake. I used sour cream in this recipe for flavor and for added moisture. Note that the batter will be quite thick. Spoon it into a 9″ springform pan and use an offset spatula to make sure it’s evenly distributed in the pan.

My preferred baking apple is Granny Smith, particularly when I’m using streusels, frostings, etc. that will be adding extra sweetness. For this recipe, I like the contrast of the tart apples to the sweet streusel and caramel toppings. But you can definitely use your favorite baking apple. Honeycrisp and Braeburns are also awesome to bake with. The apples are peeled and sliced, and tossed with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Slice your apples to about 1/4″ thick. You don’t want them too thick otherwise they won’t cook all the way through. The apples are then layered flat on top of the cake batter. I leave a really small space in the center without apples so that I can check if the cake is done without the apples skewing the result.

I use a food processor to make my streusel, as I do my tart and pie doughs, just because I find it to be easier and faster than doing it by hand. Pulse together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add in the butter chunks and pulse until small clumps start to form and the mixture no longer looks powdery. Mix in your pecans last so that they retain their crunchiness and don’t end up pulverized. Scatter the streusel evenly over the apples. The streusel can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

The caramel apple coffee cake takes quite a while to bake, about 60 minutes or so. However, it’s important to check on the cake starting at about 40-45 minutes because baking times can vary depending on the juiciness of the apples. The cake is done when a tester comes out with few crumbs.

While the cake is baking, or even a few days in advance, make the salted caramel sauce. I start this caramel sauce with a wet mix – a mixture of sugar and water. After the the water and sugar is mixed, set down that whisk, and leave it be. Let the mixture boil until it turns a rich amber color. Then immediately remove from the heat to stop the cooking process. Be careful when adding the butter and the cream, as they cause the mixture to sputter and steam. So watch those fingers. Let the cake cool until just warm or room temperature before drizzling with caramel sauce. And because it’s always okay to be extra with caramel, go ahead and drizzle a bit more on each slice before serving.

This caramel apple coffee cake is a total winner and an absolute comforting fall bake. If you try my caramel apple coffee cake, let me know! Leave a comment in the comment area below and be sure to snap a photo and tag it #littlevintagebaking on Instagram so I can see your creation!

For another fall inspired recipe, try these pumpkin cream cheese muffins!

Caramel Apple Coffee Cake

This caramel apple coffee cake consists of a sour cream cake batter topped with cinnamon sugar tossed apples and a sweet and crunchy pecan streusel topping and drizzled with salted caramel.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Caramel Apple Coffee Cake

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

Apple Coffee Cake:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup sour cream, full fat, room temperature
2 cups apples, peeled and sliced (about 2-3 medium apples)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Streusel Topping:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Salted Caramel Sauce:

1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature,
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Instructions

Make the salted caramel.

In a medium sized saucepan, combine the sugar and the water. Whisk just until combined.
Place the saucepan over medium heat. Let the sugar mixture cook, without stirring, until the sugar mixture turns a rich amber color. Take the mixture off the heat to stop the cooking process.
Add the butter to the saucepan and whisk to combine. Be very careful as the mixture is incredibly hot and will bubble up and steam when the butter is added.
Whisk in the heavy cream, followed by the vanilla and the salt until smooth.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a glass jar to cool completely.

Make the streusel.

In the bowl of a food processor, place the flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Pulse to mix.
Add the butter cubes and pulse until mixture begins to stick together and form small clumps.
Remove the bowl from the food processor and remove the center blade. Stir in the pecans. If not using right away, store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Make the apple coffee cake.

Heat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9" springform pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine.
Place the butter and the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed, stopping to scrape the bowl every so often, until the mixture is light, fluffy and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture to the batter in three batches, alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour.
Remove the bowl from the mixer, and scrape down the the bowl and give it a stir to ensure the flour is fully incorporated.
Spoon the batter into the prepared spring form pan and smooth with an offset spatula.
Place the peeled and sliced apples into a medium sized bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and stir to coat the apples.
Layer the apples, slightly overlapping, onto the cake batter.
Sprinkle the streusel topping on top of the apples.
Bake the cake for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with few moist crumbs.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire cooling rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. When the cake has cooled a bit, but is still warm, drizzle the cake with caramel sauce, cut into wedges and serve.

Recipe Notes

Store caramel sauce in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Black Forest Cupcakes

August 30, 2019 By Ashley Leave a Comment

[This post is written in partnership with Bialetti. All text and opinions are 100% mine. Thank you for supporting brands that help me and my business grow!]

Hello, friends! Is it officially considered fall when pumpkin spice starts popping up in coffee shops? As much as I love fall, I’m having a hard time dealing with the fact that summer is nearly over. But I won’t pretend that I’m not excited about hauling out the slow cooker and making ALL the soups. And fall baking, also love it. Pumpkins, apples, warm spices – comfort baking at it’s best. I’ve got so many fab recipes and tutorials lined up for this fall season and can’t wait to share them all with you.

I couldn’t possibly finish out summer baking on the blog without posting a cherry recipe. My littlest loves cherries so we’ve had a steady supply on hand since they were first available. These black forest cupcakes are the perfect way to use up the last of those cherries. And what better to pair with cherries than chocolate. These chocolate cupcakes are moist and fluffy, filled with homemade cherry filling and topped with a tangy whipped cream cheese buttercream frosting. This is my go-to cream cheese buttercream frosting I use for my wedding cakes.

I’ll admit, these black forest cupcakes aren’t authentically black forest in the traditional sense. Both feature a rich chocolate cake base, but the cherry filling differs a bit. Traditional black forest cake has that unmistakable flavor of Kirsch, or cherry liquor. I chose to leave it out and flavored my cherry filling with vanilla and a hint of almond. I left it out because I don’t keep Kirsch on hand and didn’t feel like it was worth buying a bottle of Kirsch for this one recipe. It would never be used except for this recipe. However, you can add Kirsch to the filling if you have it and wish to use it. I also used sweet cherries for my filling in place of the traditional sour cherries. Traditional black forest cake is filled and covered with a light whipped cream. I opted for a whipped cream cheese buttercream frosting because the tanginess of the cream cheese is fabulous with the cherries and the chocolate.

This chocolate cupcake recipe is one I’ve been using for years and it’s pretty much the *perfect* chocolate cupcake. It’s fantastically chocolate-y with a tight but fluffy crumb. Be sure to use a good quality dutch processed cocoa here. Not only will the flavor be highlighted, but also good quality cocoa powder has a higher fat content (ie: adds moistness to the cupcake).

The only liquid in this chocolate cupcake recipe is coffee. I used Bialetti’s Moka Express to brew the coffee for my cupcakes. I don’t own an espresso machine, so the Moka Express is a fast and easy way for me to make a quality espresso drink without having to hit the local coffee shop drive-through. Bialetti’s Milano coffee blend is my favorite to drink – it’s lighter, more floral and more delicate than the Bialetti Napoli blend that I used for these cupcakes. I opted to use a more robust and dark roast to really enhance the chocolate in the cupcakes and I wanted the natural roasted and cocoa aroma of the coffee to really shine through.

The coffee and cocoa powder are mixed together to “bloom” the cocoa powder. Combining the cocoa powder with a liquid allows the cocoa powder to dissolve and essentially release it’s flavor. Pretty much means you’re unleashing it’s ultimate chocolate-y potential. The cupcakes are made by combining sugar and butter in a saucepan and heating just until melted. The mixture is then poured into the bowl of a stand mixer and beaten until room temperature. Eggs and vanilla are added, followed by the chocolate mixture and finished by alternating between sour cream and the flour mixture. When baked they’ll be perfectly domed, moist and flavorful chocolate cupcakes.

The cherry filling for these black forest cupcakes is super easy and fast to make. Combine all the ingredients into a saucepan. I use a potato masher to break up the cherries a bit more and get them to release some of their juices once they start to cook down a bit. Let the cherry mixture simmer until thickened, add in extracts and let it cool completely before using. Easy peasy. The cherry filling can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to a week.

Whipped cream cheese buttercream frosting is so versatile and great for topping cupcakes, filling cakes and spreading on brownies. It’s also super easy to prepare and definitely a no fuss recipe. Combine softened butter and chilled cream cheese and beat until combined. I use the cream cheese while it’s still cold because it will heat up quite a bit with all the mixing. Using chilled cream cheese helps keep it more stable. Add in the powdered sugar and the vanilla and beat on low until combined. At this point, it’s going to look yellow and pretty lumpy. Turn up the mixer to medium speed and whip until the buttercream has lightened in color and texture, about 3-5 minutes.

If you really wanted to get extra, after filling the cupcakes, puree the remaining cherry filling and drizzle it over the top of the cupcakes. So. Much. Yum. These black forest cupcakes are a must try.

If you try my black forest cupcakes, let me know! Leave a comment in the comment area below and be sure to snap a photo and tag it #littlevintagebaking on Instagram. I love seeing your Little Vintage Baking creations!

For more chocolate desserts, check out these recipes:

Chocolate Stout Cake with Coffee Irish Cream Buttercream and Irish Whiskey Ganache

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies