First of all, let me apologize for the poor photo quality. There is only so much you can do with a cell phone...oh I miss my camera. Please hurry up and get it back to me, Sony! I need it! I am nothing without it...wait, no. That didn't come out right. Well, you get the point. Its a must-have in my kitchen. I will stop complaining about it now.
Onto bigger and better news: how awesome is this baby block cake? It was even more fun to make. I've worked with fondant only once before and it was not fun - at all. It was a nightmare really. But this time I think I did it right. I used powdered sugar to roll it out on instead of shortening. Whoever posted online that shortening should be used when rolling out fondant was CRAZY! It was a mess. Suppress the memories, Evan. Get a hold of yourself.
For this cake, I was asked to make a smash cake for a little girl turning one year old. Her mom wanted it to be a baby block with the letter "A" and the number "1" on it. She also asked for different girly-colored polka dots. Did I fail her? Nope! I even added my first-ever fondant figure: an adorable teddy bear with a little yellow bib. He was fun to make. His name is Ed.
The cake is a delicious vanilla (white) cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. The polka dots and the stitching on the sides of the baby block are fondant but everything else is smooth and oh-so-sweet buttercream. Want the recipes? Of course you do...here ya go:
Vanilla Cake
(adapted from the "Confetti Cakes" cookbook)2 cups cake flour (8 ounces)
1 3/4 cups plus 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour (8 ounces)
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
3 cups granulated sugar (21 ounces)
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 cup egg whites (8 ounces; about 7 eggs)
1 1/2 cups milk, room temp (12 ounces)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter, flour, and line pans with parchment paper (optional) and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla to the eggs and then add the egg mixture, a little bit at a time, until fully incorporated. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Try to do this as quickly as possible so you don't dry out the cake by over mixing. It is okay to add the milk immediately after adding the flour, and vice versa.
Divide the batter between your cake pans and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For cupcakes, bake 20-25 minutes.
Of course, no cake would be complete without the frosting:
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
*Note: This frosting recipe is designed for butter and will not work with shortening in these amounts. This is not a pure white frosting, because I don't like using shortening in my frosting and I especially do not like imitation vanilla. No, this really is a BUTTERcream!
3 sticks butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 pounds powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
About 1/3 cup of water in a measuring glass with a spout
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is pliable. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until it is fully incorporated. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Add a little bit of water at a time, frequently scraping down the sides of the bowl, until the frosting is the right consistency.
Enjoy!
With love, Ev