Today's recipe was my very first order. My friend wanted a cake to celebrate her birthday with her family and she asked me to do it.
Pretty, huh? It's a chocolate and vanilla layer cake with milk chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.
The swiss meringue buttercream recipe was from Baking a Moment's blog, with a little change. You can see her recipe following this link, she has a very useful step by step.
Chocolate
and Vanilla Layer Cake
Ingredients
(chocolate
cake)
- 170g butter (room temperature)
- 140g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 140g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 Tbs powder cocoa
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven at 180ºC (356ºF).
- Prepare the 20cm of diameter cake pan greasing it with butter and sprinkling it with flour.
- Whisk up butter and sugar until it forms a white cream. Add the eggs, one by one, while beating.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa and baking powder until well blended. Add them to the batter little by little until well incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 40 minutes. Make sure that the cake is well done by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake; if it comes out clean, you can take it out of the oven.
- Let the cake sit for 10 minutes on the baking tray before transferring it onto a rack. Unmold when the cake has completely cooled down.
- Wrap the cake with plastic wrap, tightly, and store in the cooler for half an hour. This will help you when cutting it.
- Divide the cake horizontally in three equal layers.
Ingredients
(vanilla cake)
- 120g butter (room Tº) + some more for the pan
- 180g flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 200g sugar
- 2 large eggs + 2 egg yolks
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 120mL whole milk
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven at 175ºC (350ºF).
- Prepare the 20cm diameter cake pan by spreading some butter inside, on the base and laterals. Cut a piece of baking paper to fit in the cake pan.
- In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk up the butter and 100g of sugar until a white batter is formed. Add the eggs, yolks and vanilla extract one by one, while continuing whisking the batter.
- Add the flour mix in three steps, combining it with the milk. Whisk up until well blended.
- Pour batter in the cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. To check if the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the center; if it comes out clean, it's done.
- Let the cake sit for 10 minutes on the baking tray before transferring it onto a rack. Unmold when the cake has completely cooled down.
- Wrap the cake with plastic wrap, tightly, and store in the cooler for half an hour. This will help you when cutting it.
- Divide the cake horizontally in two equal layers.
Chocolate
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Ingredients
(to
decorate two 20cm cakes)
- 3 egg whites
- 200g sugar
- 240g butter (room temperature, cold)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 115g milk chocolate, melted
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
Directions
- Mix the egg whites with the sugar in a double boiler. Heat the mixture while stirring until the sugar has completely melted and it's opaque. To check if the sugar has melted, rub some mixture between your fingers; if you do not feel any sugar in it, take the pot away from the heat.
- Add the vanilla extract. Whisk the mixture up at high speed until it's completely cold.
- Add the butter, cubed. Add only two or three cubes at a time, whipping up at every addition. Repeat until you have used all the butter. Whip until the buttercream looks smooth and light.
- Add the melted chocolate and the cocoa powder until fully incorporated.
Attention:
if the meringue was not completely cold after whipping it up, the
butter will melt when you add it and the buttercream will be too
liquid. If this happens, put the bowl in the fridge for half an hour
until you have reached the desired consistency and whisk it up again.
This
buttercream can be stored in the fridge for a week and in the freezer
for six-eight weeks. To thaw it, put it on the fridge overnight. In
both cases, whip it for 5 minutes before using it.
You
may buy bottled egg whites in order to avoid having to throw away the
yolks. In that case, these are the conversion in grams:
10
egg whites = 300gr
5
egg whites = 150gr
3
egg whites = 90gr
To build the cake:
Put the first layer as the base of the cake. I usually put some parchment paper under the first layer, in order to avoid a mess when frosting the cake. Put a spoonful of buttercream and spread it before placing another layer (this time, vanilla) on the cake.
Repeat until you have used all the layers.
Cover the cake entirely with a thin layer of buttercream. When finished, put it in the fridge for half an hour. After that time, any crumb that could be around will be stuck on the cake.
After 30 minutes, you can put the final layer of buttercream in the cake. This one will be thicker, and if you want the cake to be perfectly smooth (this is definitely not the case) you can see how to do it with this great tutorial by Coco Cake Land.
You only need to put some decorations and you're done!
This is how the cake will look on the inside.
For the pdf of the recipes: Chocolate and Vanilla Layer Cake and Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Anna
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