In this recipe tutorial see how to make
the colorful layers of this beautiful
Victorian Harlequin cake. To see the
lemon honey filling recipe and the
decorating part click the playlist at
the end of the video. Also I'll put the
links for you in the description box. You
can use four six-inch layers like I did.
Each pan is rubbed with shortening and
dusted with flour then a piece of
parchment paper. This keeps the cakes
from sticking.This book is the
inspiration behind this cake, which calls
for the juice of cooked spinach for the
green layer. I ended up using Wilton moss
green because my spinach failed. Beet
juice worked perfectly though for the
pink layer and two squares of chocolate
for the brown layer.
I used the vanilla cake from my book
Wedding Cakes with Loreleie Step-by-
Step. iI's very similar to the one in the
Victorian book. It comes with variations
and charts for large and small batch
baking. You'll need one cup of butter, 2
cups of sugar, 1 cup of milk, 3 cups
sifted and then measured all-purpose
flour. 3 teaspoons of baking powder and a
pinch of cinnamon, which is optional for
this particular Harlequin cake. 4 eggs
separated and a teaspoon of vanilla,
which I don't show you here. The soft
butter goes into the mixer along with
the sugar and you mix that on low at
first then medium.
Then scrape it and then put it on high
until it gets lighter in color and a
little bit fluffy. Takes about probably
two to three minutes. Add yolks one at a
time mixing after each addition. Whoops
sorry blooper!!!  Give your dry ingredients
a stir and then add alternately with the
milk. You want to scrape it and mix with
each addition.
add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. beat ob
medium-high for about 2 minutes.
Use a clean Bowl and mixer to beat
the egg whites until stiff but not dry.
Fold in the egg whites gently.
This adds lightness to the batter and
you also want to keep the air bubbles
intact as much as possible. Divide your
batter into four parts. The white part
goes right into the pan. Melted chocolate
gets folded in for the brown, and a half
a tablespoon of beet juice goes into the
pink one. A dab of moss green for the
green. Make sure to fold that in and not
to mix too much because you don't want
to break up those air bubbles. Bake at
325 if you have a convection oven. If you
have a regular oven bake it 350 until
they look like this and a knife or
toothpick comes out clean. Takes about 30
minutes. You can wrap and store your
layers in the fridge or freezer until
ready to fill and frost. Click the
playlist to see parts 2 & 3. Part 2 is
the filling and part three is the
decorating of this beautiful Harlequin
cake.
