A Very Merry Un-Birthday to You!

Last week was my birthday! I spent a wonderful, lovely, quiet day baking my extravagant birthday cake. The best birthday present I could have asked for was flying back to California the day before. See, I never did get a work permit in Switzerland. After three months I had to leave, and now I'm on the hunt for a new job in a new city. Don't we all dream about what we would do if? It's as if someone has freed me from every responsibility or concern and said "Martha, go out there and make your life look exactly the way you want." I had a glorious moment contemplating my wildest dreams as potential realities, discovering that my wildest dreams really aren't very wild at all. Problem?

If you could have or be or do anything you want, what would it be? Last week this cake was all I could want out of life:

It's dreamily called Buttermilk Yellow cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting. Shall we rename it? How about Heavenly Cake, Scrumptious Cake, or Brown Sugar Dream Cake? Any ideas? The reason I chose this cake is because a) we had a bit of extra buttermilk in the fridge and buttermilk makes everything taste better and b) how good does brown sugar buttercream sound? I mean really now. I thought it would be a bit more tan, but as it turns out the egg whites really dominate this frosting. My only modification would be to add a little less salt to the frosting. On the other hand it gives it this intriguing salty-sweet caramel taste and prevents the whole cake from being too sweet.

As you can see the cake was almost purely white, which meant that after being assembled and frosted it looked like a wedding cake. To tell you the truth I hadn't thought past the baking stage so I really had nothing in mind for the decoration. Fortunately my sister and mom gave my dad a bunch of French lavender plants for the garden, which are beautifully in bloom right at this very moment. It only took a few minutes to pluck a few stems and arrange them artfully on the cake! (side note: it may still have looked like a fancy wedding cake. I do not care.)

Let's get into how I made it...and I want to remind you that it took all day. Still, you should try it sometime, there's nothing more satisfying than a perfectly iced three-layer cake.

Buttermilk Yellow Cake 
(originally Moist Yellow Cake published in Bon Appetit, August 2004)

• 3 cups cake flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two (or three, if you'd like) 8-in (20 cm) cake pans.

I had to make my own cake flour this time because I ran out...Fortunately making cake flour is quite easy! You will need cornstarch and all-purpose flour. For every cup of flour take out two tablespoons. Replace the two tablespoons of flour you took out with two tablespoons of cornstarch. For three cups of cake flour, you would take out six tablespoons of flour and replace them with six tablespoons of cornstarch. Sift the mixture together about five or six times and you're ready to go.

After you've made your cake flour add in the baking powder and salt and sift it together again. Sifting will keep the flour very light and will allow the wet ingredients to permeate better. It will also lighten the crumb and prevent the cake from getting too heavy.

Spend a little time with the mixer on medium high creaming the butter. It should be fluffy and light-colored after a couple minutes. Now you want to add the sugar a quarter cup at a time continuing to beat the butter. This will allow the sugar crystals to break through the butter fat, keeping the cake light. One by one add the eggs, beating well after each one.

Mix the vanilla extract with the buttermilk. Now you're ready to mix it all together! Start with the flour, mixing in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the flour. It's very important that you not over mix! Keep the mixer on medium speed and mix only until the ingredients are combined. After you've added everything scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix briefly.

Add the batter to the pans, filling each equally and smoothing the tops (this will help the cake avoid doming). Place in the center of the oven and cook until the top is golden and it starts to pull away from the side of the pan (about 35 minutes for me with three pans). A knife in the center should come out clean. Don't worry if they get a teensy bit overcooked, as it will actually make it easier to assemble and frost.

Now that the cake is in the oven, let's move on to the hard part!

Brown Sugar Buttercream
(originally seen in Gourmet, January 2001)

• 3 large egg whites at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Special equipment: candy thermometer

This is apparently a bit of a tricky recipe...you have to make simple syrup and meringue, successfully combine them and add butter. Make sure all your ingredients are at the proper temperature, this will be the key to success with a buttercream.

First things first. Add the salt to your room temp egg whites. The salt will help make sure the whites fluff enough, but it will also make the frosting a wee bit salty, not in a gross way but noticeably. I would add only half a teaspoon next time, and see what happens. Once your egg whites and salt are combined (in a very clean, dry, room temperature stainless steel or copper bowl) set them aside.

Take out a small saucepan and mix the brown sugar and water in it. Put them over the stove on medium high and bring to a boil. Make sure it doesn't burn by stirring occasionally. While it's boiling, occasionally brush down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush soaked in water.  Right when the simple syrup starts to boil, start mixing your egg whites. Once they get to a frothy stage, add the lemon juice and continue beat until it forms soft peaks.

I didn't have a candy thermometer so I used a meat thermometer, but you want to let the sugar boil until it gets to about 240 degrees F. Just eye-balling it I would say this is the point where there are lots of bubbles coming up and it looks a little frothy. As soon as it reaches this point, pour it out into a heat-proof container.

Now you are going to slowly add the simple syrup to the egg whites while beating with a mixer. In a slow, thin stream add the syrup to one side of the bowl, beating at a high speed. Continue beating the egg whites for 6 minutes, scraping down the pan. It should be cool to the touch when you are done. It should also be shiny and look really pretty and fancy.

Now you need your butter. It's in pieces (about 1-inch should do the trick) and it's softened (but not melty). Adding one piece at a time, mix the butter into the meringue. Make sure each piece is thoroughly mixed in before adding another. This part is a little freaky, because your formerly pretty meringue is going to start looking a little icky and curdled. That's ok! It will come together again (I promise). If it starts to get too soupy (mine did) place the bowl in some ice water for a few minutes. By the time you've added all the butter the buttercream should have come together again and look like fluffy yummy frosting. Don't forget to add the vanilla at the very end. Nicely done!

Assembling the layers

You didn't forget the cake in the oven, did you? The cake should be out of the oven and cooling on a rack. When it's about room temperature take a bread knife and smooth out the top of it a bit, if it's domed. Don't worry about making it too perfect, the frosting should be able to help you out. After it's smoothed out and completely cooled, wrap each layer in saran wrap and tinfoil, and place it in the fridge for an hour or so. Trust me, it'll help you frost.

Make sure the frosting is room temperature and don't chill it, or it will make it more difficult to spread. Now let's assume the layers are cool and you're all ready to assemble the cake. Start off by putting the first layer down on the cake plate. A helpful tip I once read said to smear a little frosting underneath it so it doesn't scoot around too much. now you want to layer a thick amount of the buttercream on the top of the cake, ignoring the sides. Place layer two upside-down on layer one. If the frosting layer is thick enough, you can press the cake down where it's uneven to straighten it out. Repeat the same thing with layer three, placing it upside-down on layer two and generously frosting the top. Now you're gonna move on to frosting the sides of the cake. This is a little tricky but you can do it! Take a spatula with a flat edge and start spreading the frosting on pretty thick. The first round will look globby and kinda bad. That's ok! After you have plenty of frosting on the side of the cake, clean the spatula off and start smoothing it down. Try to use long strokes, going around the cake and not pressing down too much. Clean off the spatula frequently. When the sides look smooth you can smooth off the top. Here are a few photos (also proof that I did not buy this cake as some suggested!):