Back, with a cake

The first thing I did when I got up after having returned from New York the previous night was to make a cake! It was a birthday cake request for a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. I have a recipe that everyone seems to really love, so I made the same Bumblebee cake, which I have previously posted. My favorite thing about baking, especially cakes, is the amount of design and creativity that goes into the appearance. I assure you, there are a lot of sketches for this cake. I ended up going with some chocolate flowers on little buttercream "bubbles."



While we were in New York, visited a lot of bakeries. I had excellent cookies at City Bakery and little assortments from Dean & Deluca, which was fun. I wish I'd taken more photos of all the little treats we got, but for the most part, everything disappeared within seconds.

I used exactly the same recipe for this cake, as I did in my previous post, here. Also, we got flowers from a friend and I thought they were too pretty not to take a picture of:


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Bumblebee Cake

One of my favorite places in the world is San Francisco. More specifically, the Ferry Terminal Building. Home to Miette Pâtisserie, Schaffen Berger chocolate, and other independent organic farmers. It's basically a foodie heaven. Miette Pâtisserie is my all-time favorite place to get a sweet. It combines beautiful designs with really delicious flavors. One of their cakes I've always thought looked super moist and tasty was their Bumblebee cake- A buttery vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Not an unusual cake, but this one is just so pretty and classically scrumptious. A friend of mine has a birthday tomorrow, so I thought I'd make this cake, which he mentioned he loved the flavors of.

I'm not thrilled with the photos I took, mainly because I had to shoot them at night. I didn't finish the cake until then, and I won't be home when it next gets light. However, an exciting update: I just ordered my Canon Rebel Xsi and 50mm/1.8 lens. I am so excited I can barely contain myself. The new camera will take my photos to the next level, so don't be shocked! :)

For the buttercake:
Adapted from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans

2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8" cake pan bottoms and line with parchment. Grease parchment and flour. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until combined and creamy (about 2 minutes). Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 more minutes. ON low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture ad mixing just until the flour is incorporates and the batter looked smooth. Fill the cake pans equally and shake to smooth top. Bake for about 30 minutes, depending on your oven. [Having a convection oven really helps in this case.] When the cake tops are dark-golden brown and a tester comes out clean, remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan. After at least 2 hours, you can slice the domed tops of the cakes off, and split the layers.


I am a believer that the best buttercream has very little powdered sugar. It should be soft, and not ridiculously sweet. I get compliments about my frosting all the time about how it doesn't give people a head-rush from all the sugar and isn't stiff as a brick.

For the chocolate buttercream:

3 sticks unsalted butter; soft
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Beat butter in electric mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder in small increments as slowly as possible [if you start the mixer too high, your frosting will end up on your kitchen walls]. Increase the speed after it looks like your frosting won't fly everywhere.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

Combine equal weights of chopped chocolate and heavy cream. Heat cream in a small saucepan to a simmer. Pour over chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Let it sit and cover the chocolate for 2 minutes, then stir.
Wait until the chocolate is room temperature before you pour it over your iced cake. Don't put it in the fridge or it will form a crust on the surface.
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