Friday, 19 February 2016

Princess Cake- Birthday cake for my Little Princess

(Birthday Cake for my 4 yr old girl)



Ingredients for an 8” cake

Sugar : 1 Cup
Egg : 2
Plain Flour: 1 ¼ Cup
Milk : ½ Cup
Vinegar : ½ tsp
Oil : ½ cup
Baking Powder : 1 ¼ tsp
Baking Soda : ½tsp
Vanilla Essence : 1tsp



Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Grease the bottom and the sides of the pan well.Line it with baking Paper

Mix milk and vinegar together and keep it aside for about 5-10 min. 
In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs together until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Add flour, milk, oil, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla and beat for another minute, just until the batter is smooth and creamy. Don't over-beat. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick poked into the center of the layer comes out clean. Loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a thin knife, then turn out onto a rack and peel off the paper. Let cool completely before covering with frosting.

I made 4 batches of cake mix and pour it in 1 tall 8” pan, 2 normal 8" pans and one oven-safe bowl. The baking temperature for the bowl was less than 170 C and I baked it for almost an hour so that it get cooked correctly.

Turn your cakes out of their baking dishes and allow to cool completely (warm cakes will melt the buttercream).
                 
Using  a round cookie cutter  cut a circle out of the centre of all of these cake layers (Based on the height of the Doll. For me the I didn’t cut the bottom layer so that the dolls leg rest on the cake itself not on the tray).

Take your doll and tie the hair high so it won’t touch the cake and get disturbed while doing the doll’s skirt.  Surround the legs of the doll in plastic wrap and put her hand up.



Swiss Meringue Buttercream   (About 10 cups of buttercream)

Ingredients

Ingredients
fresh egg whites : 10 large  (300 g)
Sugar : 2 ½cups (500 g)
Unsalted butter, cut into cubes ( cool, but not cold) : 3 cups (680 g)
pure vanilla extract : 1.5 Tbsp
pinch of salt


Method:

Wipe a heat-proof bowl with paper towel and lemon juice, to remove any traces of grease. Add egg whites and sugar, and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly but gently, until temperature reaches 160°F (If you don't have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot).

With whisk attachment of mixer (or a hand held mixer), begin to whip until the meringue is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl feels neutral to the touch (this can take up to 10 minutes or so).

Don't add butter until the bottom of the bowl feels neutral, and not warm. Switch over to paddle attachment and, with mixer on low speed, add butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated, and mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture (if curdles, keep mixing and it will come back to smooth).

If mixture is too runny, refrigerate for about 15 minutes and continue mixing with paddle attachment until it comes together. Add vanilla and salt, continue beating  on low speed until well combined.



Ingredients  for the Filling

Pineapple – cut into small pieces . (I used canned pineapple)
Whipping cream –1½-2 cups

Method:

Cook the pineapple by adding sugar syrup little by little. (if using fresh pineapple add sugar based on the sweetness of the pineapple). Add sugar too if the pineapple are not sweet enough. Once its soft and cooked properly, remove from heat and allow it to cool.
By the time whip the cream by adding 1-2 tbsp powdered sugar. Once the pineapple is cooled completely fold it to the whipped cream.


Assemble the Cake:

To construct the cake, first brush each layer with sugar syrup (I used the leftover syrup from the canned pineapple) before you place the filling  between the layers and stack. (Add a thick layer of filling between these cake layers)

Make a very thin ‘crumb coat’ of buttercream on the outside of the cake and place it in the fridge to harden – this will help the piped buttercream to stick to your cake. Do not worry too much if it is not perfectly smooth or beautiful looking just do your best.  Place in the fridge to firm up.

Carefully place the doll in the hole made in the center of the cake and do the rest of the icing . I did roses throughout the skirt and I preferred purple colour as that’s my little princess’s favourite colour. :) (even though I couldn’t find the exact purple colour she like, she was really happy with the colour and the cake I made . ;) )


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