A First With Buttercream Roses.

It took me all of a second to decide on my mum’s birthday cake. I’ve always wanted her to try this cake i first made for a close friend a couple years ago when i first started really baking but had never found the appropriate opportunity to make it. Dark, rich, decadent and sinful, this was without doubt the perfect party cake for her.

The recipe itself was simple enough- both making the cake and then the luscious truffle filling- but i soon found myself in a spot of trouble after baking the said cake. I had used a 10 inch cake pan, instead of an 8 inch that the recipe calls for, resulting in a cake that would be a little too thin than i would have liked after slicing it into two layers. Then came the decision whether to make the full quantity of the truffle filling or just half of it so it wouldn’t overwhelm the cake layers.

As with all important decisions in my life, i pondered over it for a whole of five seconds then decided to wing it- make the full quantity and whatever’s left over can constitute to my breakfast, lunch and dinner for as long as it could possibly last (yup, the filling is that good). Thankfully, for the sake of my waistline, i ended up using all of it.

To decorate the cake, i had very ambitiously and impulsively decided i would give making buttercream roses my first shot. After all, i had tons of buttercream sitting in the fridge, leftovers from a batch of cupcakes i frosted the night before.

Piping the buttercream roses wasn’t too hard but transferring them onto the cake was a totally different matter altogether. I tried gently coaxing them off with a skewer and then a spatula- those that survived the journey ended up resembling nothing close to roses. Eventually, using a pair of kitchen scissors to “cut” the roses off the nail bed then gently nudging the roses off it with a skewer worked best for me. I must have aged ten years just transferring each of the twelve roses.

All in all, it was a really good, fun and very messy experience. I really look forward to trying my hand at more buttercream roses and playing around with the types of buttercreams.

Chocolate Truffle Cake [taken from Donna Hay Modern Classics 2]

Ingredients
1/2 cup plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
80g butter, melted

Truffle Filling
450g dark chocolate
2 cups pouring cream
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and line an 8 inch springform cake pan and set aside.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa powder thrice and set aside. Place the sugar and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for about 10 minutes till egg mixture triples in volume and is pale and thick.
3. Gently fold flour mixture and butter through egg mixture. Gently pour into cake pan, without deflating the batter and bake for 25 minutes or till cake comes away from the side of the tin. Cool cake in pan.
4. To make truffle filling Melt chocolate and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat till melted and smooth. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl and beat mixture for 6 minutes till it’s thick and creamy. Fold chocolate mixture through egg mixture and beat till cold. Place filling in the fridge for 30 minutes.
5. To assembly cake Remove cake from tin and slice in half horizontally. Place the bottom layer back in the tin and pour half of the truffle filling over. Gently place the top layer on the cake and cover with the rest of truffle filling. Refrigerate for 5 hours or till set. To serve, place a warm tea towel around the tin, carefully removing the tin and using a heated knife to smooth the edges. Serves 10-12