VANILLA SPONGE WITH BUTTERCREAM AND PRALINE

Ain’t the cake looking pretty? Like caramel popcorn?

And to think I almost dumped the cake and the frosting into the bin.

I am not a professional baker and I haven’t attended any baking/cake decorating classes. I have had very few mishaps while baking. I always follow instructions and use the exact measurements as shown in the recipe.  I am also a paranoid baker especially when it comes to baking for special occasions (I stand frozen in front of the oven). I realised it’s also important to tell readers what mistakes not to make and this would be the ideal post for that.

I decided to bake a cake for my father’s birthday. He is not a big fan of chocolate cakes so I decided to bake a vanilla sponge with buttercream.

I promptly scrolled through cake recipes on Ria’s Collection and decided on baking the PralineVanilla Sponge Gateau 

The sponge cake as seen in the recipe is fatless and doesn’t use any leavening agents (Baking Powder/Baking Soda). Paranoia set in and as I hadn’t baked this cake before, I decided to make the sponge cake from Rachel Allen’s Swedish Almond Cake. The recipe was shared by Shugz, one of my WhatsApp Friends. Shugz is our desi Nigella. I ought to get her to do a post for us. She bakes the most amazing (looking and tasting) cakes.

The buttercream and praline are adapted from Ria’s blog.

VANILLA SPONGE WITH BUTTERCREAM AND PRALINE

Ingredients:

For the sponge                                              

Eggs – 3 (room temperature)

Castor (powdered) sugar – 150g

Plain flour – 150 g

Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp

Milk – 3 tbsp

Butter(melted) – 75 g        

Vanilla extract – 2 tsp

For the Buttercream

Butter, softened – 75g

Icing Sugar – 140g

For the Praline

Butter – 1 tbsp

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Sugar – 3 tbsp

Method:

1.      Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan). Grease the tin.

2.    To make the praline- Melt sugar on medium flame until it begins to brown. Add nuts and butter to it and mix well. Stir for a few minutes until the mixture turns brown. Pour onto butter paper and let it cool completely. Once cooled, crush it into tiny bits. Set aside.

3.      For the cake-Melt the butter, let it cool.

4.     Using an electric beater, whisk together the eggs and sugar for 5-7 mins, or until thick and mousse like.

5.     Sift in the flour and baking powder and gently fold. Add the vanilla essence, milk and melted butter, then fold everything until combined. Bake for 25 mins or until done.  Let the cake cool completely.

6.      For the buttercream- Mix butter and icing sugar with the beater until it is fluffy.

7.      Pipe the buttercream onto the cake and sprinkle the praline on it.

8.      Done.

Recipe Notes:

·     Do not keep the caramelised sugar on the flame for long. Sugar burns easily.  Keep stirring continuously to prevent it from burning. 

·     You may reduce the quantity of sugar in the buttercream or praline, else the whole combination gets a bit too sweet.

·     I’ve made this cake without the beater, just using a whisk/large spoon. It still turns out great.

I got back home early so I could get good pictures of the cake in natural light and started off with great aplomb. I first made the Praline and that came out great.

I was happily beating the eggs and sugar with the cake beater (unlike on a previous occasion when I used the food processor/mixie to beat the eggs and the cake fell flat L) when the bowl tilted, tipping most of the contents on the kitchen slab! (never use the food processor/mixie to beat/mix the ingredients unless the recipe specifically asks for it) I dumped the remaining egg-sugar mixture into the sink and started again!

I usually bake cakes in 8 inch tins but decided to use a smaller tin this time and I’m not sure if that’s the reason for the usually spongy cake to be slightly dense this time. The cake was delicious but I wasn’t very pleased with the way it looked and also as it was slightly flat, I couldn’t layer the cake.

Also, after I whipped the sugar and eggs into a mousse like consistency, I dumped all the remaining ingredients into the mixture instead of adding it in segments and gently folding it, as a result of which all the dry ingredients sunk to the bottom and I ended up ‘over-mixing’. Do not over-mix.

The buttercream was a DISASTER to begin with. The buttercream separated and looked curdled. It was runny and I couldn’t pipe it onto the cake. At this point of time, I looked at the flat cake and at the runny icing and contemplated buying ice cream for my father with homemade praline to go with it.

I took a deep breath, sat on the sofa, scratched my head, watched TV for a few minutes and then jumped back into the kitchen. I took out the excess butter that I’d just kept in the fridge. Added that and a little more icing sugar into the buttercream and whisked it with the beater and there it was – the perfect buttercream!

Mistakes to avoid while making Buttercream:

Butter shouldn’t be too soft

All ingredients to be at room temperature

Do not add too much liquid ( milk /vanilla extract), the buttercream may look curdled

Do not over-beat

For all the new bakers out there, hope you’ve found these tips handy. Remember, there’s always a way to salvage your cakes.