Roopa
My coworker Rebecca is having a baby girl! We’re all very excited for her and while I unfortunately could not attend the shower I offered to make a cake. It’s the year of the pig so she wanted a pig themed cake. Can’t say that’s not an interesting request.
While I can appreciate fondant and the skill required to do things with fondant, I personally hate the taste of fondant and generally avoid doing much with it. I saw some interesting fondant pig cakes, but I wanted this cake to be excellent so I stayed away from that. I ended up seeing something on Instagram by @dreamdoughco that was exactly the aesthetic I was going for – a buttercream cake with some fondant accents and a, dare I say, elegant pig. Overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out (and apparently it tasted great too!)
VANILLA CAKE (adapted from Sweetapolita)
INGREDIENTS
- 5 egg whites
- 60 g (1/4 cup) whole milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 285 g cake flour, sifted
- 350 g granulated sugar
- 19.5 g baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 170 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 120 g (1/2 cup) whole milk
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line 3 x 6″ pans.
- Stir together the egg whites, 1/4 cup of milk, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, mix together the dry ingredients.
- Add the butter and remaining 1/2 cup of milk to the stand mixer. Mix thoroughly.
- Add the egg mixture in three separate batches until well combined. Do not over mix.
- Divide the batter into three pans (I weigh my pans)
- Bake 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Leave cake pans in pan for 20 minutes, then remove and let them cool on cooling racks.
Notes:
- It’s pretty critical the butter is softened for this sort of mixing. I’m still undecided how I feel about it. In the future I think I’d cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, and alternate the dry ingredients and the milk.
- I had a small baking disaster where my oven smelled like oven cleaner and I ended up using my neighbour’s oven. Don’t be like me. Be better.
ASSEMBLY
- I put jam inside and iced the cake with swiss meringue buttercream. Nothing too crazy, but still delicious.
- I made the fondant nose, tail, and ears the day before.
- I iced the cake and let it cool for a while before painting it. I used Edible Art Champagne Gold and really liked how it worked. I definitely had some issues from not leaving it to cool for long enough, so give yourself enough time to do that.
