Royal Wedding Cake

I promise this is the last you'll hear of Will and Kate's wedding.  But I just had to show you the cake I made to celebrate.

 I made a real, professional buttercream frosting for this vanilla butter cake, as well as a strawberry crème mousseline filling. Now don't get me wrong, I loved this buttercream, but I'm still partial to sweeter, less silky frosting. To tell you the truth, my simple buttercream frosting was superior to this professional buttercream, in my opinion.

Now as far as the crème mousseline goes, I really wish I had had something other than frozen strawberries to work with. I would rather have a nice, thick lemon curd, myself, but Piggie said the strawberry filling was her favorite part, so to each his own I suppose.

Professional-Style Buttercream

Adapted from Baking by James Peterson

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

8 egg yolks, slightly warmed (let sit it warm water for a few minutes before cracking)

1 1/2 cups cold butter, cut into chunks. 

3 teaspoon vanilla

Bring the sugar and water to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.

While the syrup is cooking, beat the yolks on high speed in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for about 8 minutes or until they have quadrupled in volume and are very pale. 

While the egg yolks are beating, check the syrup. It needs to be at the "soft ball stage". If you're using a candy thermometer, it needs to be at 238ºF. Otherwise, take some of the syrup on a little on a spoon and dip it in cold water. It's done when you can pull the sugar off of the spoon and form a little ball the consistency of chewed bubble gum. If it gets too hard, you'll have to add a few tablespoons of water and start testing again.

When the syrup and yolks are ready, turn the mixer onto high speed and slowly pour the syrup into the eggs. Try not to get any on the whisk or on the sides because it will harden and break off into your frosting. Continue beating it until it's just a little warmer than room temperature (hold your hand under the bowl. It shouldn't feel hot or cold). 

Turn down the mixer to medium and add the butter cubes, a little handful at a time. Wait until each batch is absorbed before adding more. Beat for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla.

Strawberry Crème Mousseline

Adapted from Baking by James Peterson

2 cups pureed strawberries

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

3 egg yolks

5 tablespoons cornstartch

1 1/2 cups cold butter, cubed

Bring the fruit puree to a gentle simmer. 

Whisk together the sugar, egg, and yolks for about 1 minute, or until smooth and pale. 

Slowly pour about half of the fruit puree into the egg mixture. 

Pour this mixture back into the saucepan over medium heat.

Whisk until bubbly and thick. 

Once cool (it's faster if you beat it with the paddle attachment of your mixer) add the butter chunks, one third at a time, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding the next. 

Beat on high speed for about 5 minutes more until light and fluffy. 

Ah. That's better. Nice and bright

I made some cake balls with spare cake and frosting. Just crumble your extra cake, combine a little frosting, mold into balls, freeze so their easier to frost, and then frost with more frosting or dip in chocolate.