Hi Bold Bakers! It’s kind of hard to believe
but Bigger Bolder Baking is 2 years old today
and we are going to celebrate by making the
most impressive vanilla birthday cake with
buttercream frosting. So let’s get baking.
Over the last two years, we’ve built up
a really good repertoire of recipes but today
I want to show you a master recipe for vanilla
cake and for buttercream frosting. They are
two recipes that every bold baker must have
to hand. We’re going to start out by mixing
together our wet ingredients. In a jug, add
in your egg whites, a whole egg, milk, and
vanilla extract. And then just whisk them
all together until they’re combined. Ok
that’s our wet ingredients. We’re going
to set these guys aside and get started on
our dry ingredients. For our next step, I’m
going to mix my cake on my stand mixer, but
don’t worry, you can also mix this cake
easily by hand. Into my bowl, I’m going
to add in my flour, sugar, baking powder,
and salt, and then just give them a quick
mix up with a spatula. Into our dry ingredients,
we’re going to add in our cold, cubed butter.
So now we’re going to turn on our machine
to medium low speed and we’re going to let
the paddle actually work the butter into the
flour and you’re going to end up with fine
bread crumbs. Now I know this technique is
a little different from what we’ve done
before, but adding in the butter this way,
it makes it nice and small and gives your
cake a different crumb and makes it nice and
buttery. And remember you can also rub in
the butter by hand no problem. And this is
what it should look like. There are some little
lumps of butter, there are some finer pieces.
This is perfect, this is what we’re looking
for. So now we’re going to turn our machine
back on to medium speed and we’re going
to add in our liquid. All we’re doing here
is mixing until our batter forms and there’s
no more lumps. It only takes a minute or two.
And there you have it, that’s our cake batter.
You want to run a spatula underneath to make
sure there’s no dry bits, but that’s what
we’re going for. Ok great, now we’re going
to take this batter and get it into our cake
tins. So I’m baking our cake in three, six
inch tins because I want to get it nice and
high. But don’t worry, you can also bake
it in an 8 or 9 inch tin and also, it can
be baked in cupcake tins. Into a buttered
and lined tin, divide your cake batter evenly.
You also don’t have to use three tins like
I am. You can always bake it in one and just
slice your layers. I can already tell these
cakes are going to be big and bold, I can’t
wait to see them. We’re going to pop this
guy into the oven now at 350 degrees Fahrenheit
or 180 degrees Celsius until they’re firm
on top and lovely and golden brown.
While the cakes are baking, we’re going
to get started on our buttercream frosting.
Now I know a lot of you find buttercream frosting
hard, and I found it hard when I first started
baking. But if you just follow my tips and
techniques, I guarantee you will have a fool-proof
buttercream frosting every time. I’m going
to put this recipe with instructions and the
recipe for the cake on biggerbolderbaking.com.
Into your stand mixer, add in your room temperature
butter. A really important tip is that your
butter is room and soft but not melting. You
want to get a nice texture. We’re going
to turn on our machine to medium high speed
and cream up your butter. You want it to get
nice and fluffy before you add in your sugar.
You can also make this frosting using an electric
hand mixer, but it’s very difficult to do
by hand. This is what you want your butter
to look like. It’s pale, it’s grown in
volume, it is the perfect texture to start
adding in the icing sugar. So now we’re
going to turn back on the machine to medium
high speed and we’re slowly going to add
in the sifted icing sugar spoonful by spoonful
until it’s all gone. If I can give you one
bit of advice about adding the icing sugar,
don’t let the spoon get too close to the
paddle because I’ve done that many times.
Ok great it’s looking good. All of our sugar
is in there. It’s kind of grown in volume.
It’s nice and soft. So we’re just going
to go in with a spatula and scrape down all
of that icing sugar. Perfect. So to flavor
this, we’re going to add in some vanilla
extract, some salt, a little bit of milk,
and also I have some vanilla seed so I’m
going to add them in there too. It’ll make
it look really nice. Now that we’ve got
our flavor in there, I’m going to turn the
machine back on to high speed for around 3-4
minutes and let it all whip up and then we’re
ready to go. This buttercream recipe can be
made in advance and be kept in your fridge
for up to two weeks so it’s really great.
Ok I can tell that this is done. Look at this.
This is how your buttercream should look.
Light and fluffy, white, full of air, and
that’s the reason we beat it up so much.
Some people say to me that their buttercream
frosting tastes like butter, it absolutely
should not. It should taste like air. And
that’s the reason we keep on beating it.
If it still tastes like that, then keep it
going on that machine. This is perfect, it
tastes like a fluffy vanilla cloud. It’s
going to great with our cake. I just heard
our timer go off there so we’re going to
set this aside and go check on our cakes.
These cakes look great, they’re a lovely
golden brown on top and they’re nice and
firm in the middle which says that they’re
done. And you can also tell because it’s
pulled away from the edge of the tin. So this
is my favorite part, the decorating. When
everything comes together. Now I made this
cake yesterday because it’s always best
to decorate maybe day old cake because it
doesn’t get as crumby and it looks much
better. Also, you can make this cake in advance
and freeze it, have it in the freezer for
maybe three weeks and then pull it out whenever
you need it. Before we start frosting our
cake, we’re going to even out the layers
to make sure that everything is level and
smooth and it frosts much better. So if you
have a little bump on top like I do, take
a knife and just cut as straight across as
possible. And then just remove that lump and
then you end up with a nice level top. Now
that we have our cakes leveled off, we’re
going to start to decorate. I actually like
to decorate mine on a little bit of a turntable
because it makes it really easy to frost.
If you don’t have one, don’t worry about
it. Put a nice dollop of buttercream in the
center of your cake. And then with your spatula,
we’re just going to move it all the way
around to the edges. I like my buttercream
to be nice and thick. And try to get it as
even as you can, I know it’s not easy but
you know what? The less you think about it,
the better of a job you’re going to do.
Now go on with your next layer and just continue
frosting as before. Ok now on with our last
layer. Now what I like to do is use his bottom
as his top, so you get a lovely even layer
when it comes to decorating. Just look at
that, it looks fantastic. So our next layer
is our crumb layer. Now this a really important
step because it catches all of the loose crumbs
so it won’t make its way into your final
decorating of your cake. So all you want to
do is put your frosting on top and work it
around the top of your cake all the way down
the sides. We’re just doing a thin layer
all over trying to catch any loose crumbs.
This is just a rough layer. What this also
does is make your cake nice and straight and
even, which is something I had trouble with
cakes in the past until I started doing this
method. As you can see, it’s catching up
all the crumbs because we don’t want those
in our finished product. And that is our crumb
layer. It actually looks pretty good right
now. But what we’re going to do is take
this cake and pop it in the fridge and let
this icing go cold and set. It’ll take around
20 minutes to half an hour. It’ll make it
much easier to decorate on this once it’s
cold.
Our cake has been in the fridge for half an
hour and our crumb layer has set. You can
tell because it’s nice and firm underneath
your finger. Now we’re going to go ahead
and put on our last coat of buttercream frosting
and then we’re going to cover it with sprinkles.
I always like to start at the top of the cake
decorating so I can work it down the sides.
And like I said before, the faster you move,
the better your result. Continue around the
cake with a nice thick layer of buttercream
frosting. We have every patch, every little
space of cake covered in frosting. It doesn’t
look perfect but don’t worry about it, our
next is to cover it in sprinkles and as we
know, sprinkles cover a multitude of sins.
To decorate your cake with sprinkles, start
by pouring them all over the top and then
for the sides, you’re just going to have
to take handfuls of sprinkles and pretty much
just throw them at the side of the cake and
make them stick. One important tip is to put
a baking tray down underneath the cake so
it catches all of the sprinkles so you can
just reuse them and throw them back on. Now
I’m pretty sure you can already see why
I love this method, of decorating. Number
one, because it’s super easy. Number two,
because you don’t have to be a perfect cake
decorater to be able to do this. It is a great
way to decorate an impressive cake. And there
you have it, in just minutes you have a big
and bold birthday cake. It looks insane. The
thing about this cake is that it doesn’t
need a whole lot so I’m just going to pipe
some rosettes of buttercream on the top. And
then look at this. How fantastic, what a great
celebration cake. Perfect for bigger bolder
baking’s birthday, perfect for your birthday.
This technique for decorating with sprinkles
is so fast and easy, I know you’ll be able
to recreate it. Now I’m going to cut out
a big slice. With a serrated knife, cut yourself
a generous slice of this beautiful cake. Look
at all those layers and those sprinkles. I
love the colors and the contrast. It looks
fantastic. This cake is soft and moist and
the taste of vanilla is just gorgeous. It
reminds me of birthday cakes I used to have
when I was growing up. Thank you so much for
the great support over the last two years
and being part of the bold baking community.
I couldn’t have done it without you. 2nd
Birthday! Yay!
