On 6th September was my father's 54th birthday so I decided to go with this cake. At first I wasn't very sure if vanilla and espresso would go together. But oh my god was I wrong? It's a match made in heaven. People go bananas after mocha but my now favourite combination is vanilla and espresso.
If nothing, we all can agree on one thing, I click really bad pictures and also that I should've bought a turntable, but like damn, decorating a cake is hard!! This was my first time ever!! I was and am so excited and a tad bit proud too ;)
This cake is so moist with the perfect sweetness and the perfect crumb, I literally have no words to describe. Like literally.
INGREDIENTS: Cake:
1-1/2 (300gm) cups Granulated sugar
4 Eggs
1/4 cup Yogurt
1/4 cup+2T Oil
3/4 cup Milk
2-3/4 (330gm) cup Flour
3-1/2 tsp Baking powder
1-1/2T Vanilla Extract
Sugar Syrup:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Ganache:
1/2 cup (130gm) Heavy cream
1/2 cup (130gm) Chopped chocolate
Espresso Buttercream:
1 cup (227gm) Unsalted butter, softened
2 cups Icing sugar
4T Instant coffee granules
1T Lukewarm water
DIRECTIONS:
Cake:
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and line two 8" round baking tins with parchment.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together egg and sugar till frothy, add in your milk, yogurt, oil and vanilla and mix well.
3. Then sift in your baking powder and flour in the wet mixture and mix till no dry streaks are visible.
4. Evenly divide your batter in the two moulds and wrap a wet baking strips around your cake tins. Bake the cakes for 40 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes clean.
5. Let the cakes cool for 10 mins, finish cooling the cakes on a wire rack
6. let the cake cool in the refrigerator overnight.
Sugar Syrup:
In a sauce pan, heat together water and sugar until the sugar is just disolved, let this syrup come to room temperature before using.
Ganache:
In a microwave safe bowl, heat the cream for 1min, add in your chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 5 mins. Stir until smooth. Let the ganache come to room temperature
Espresso Buttercream:
1. Mix together coffee granules and water till smooth.
2. In a bowl sift your icing sugar to remove all lumps.
3. Beat the softened butter for 10 mins at medium-high speed. Gradually add in you icing sugar 1/4 cup at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl in between.
4. After all the sugar is added, let the buttercream beat for another 5 mins.
5. After 5 mins, add in your coffee concoction and vanilla extract and beat for another 5 mins.
Decoration and Assembly:
1. Drench the now cool cakes in the sugar syrup. This helps in keeping the cake moist
2. Add a dollop of the buttercream to your cake board and place on top of the first layer of cake.
3. Using a round tip, make a boundary of frosting on top of the first layer, add in half of your ganache and even it out.
4. Place the 2nd layer of the cake upside down, so that the top of the cake is now towards the buttercream and ganache. Crumb coat your cake using a thin layer of frosting and let the cake chill for 30mins in the refrigerator or 15mins in the freezer (this helps in having unwanted crummy frosting)
5. Frost the sides and top of the cake with generous amounts of the butttercream frosting,(I recommend using an offset spatula) melt your ganache and pour it on top of the cake, letting it drip to the sides.
6. Pipe some rosettes on top using a 1M with the remaining buttercream.
7. Chill the cake for 30mins in the refrigerator, this helps in cutting the cake easily.
Enjoy<3
Notes:
1. Make sure your cake is completely cool before icing it
2. If your buttercream is too runny, try adding a bit more sugar and chilling it in the fridge
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