Every year when 4th of July rolls around, I am sure most of you see an American flag cake on your feed or the grocery store. That’s because it’s the most festive, patriotic and easy cake for this celebration. I end up baking and decorating an american flag cake every year and it never gets old. It’s easy enough that the kids enjoy helping me. Now I do enjoy coming up with my own recipes or putting a spin on an existing one. But I don’t always believe in recreating the wheel. When you enjoy cooking and baking it’s not always about what you will create and not sure how it will taste. Especially if you are cooking/baking a dish for a celebration or guests you can’t take any chances.You want that dessert to taste really good I know I do. I love to try out new recipes that have great reviews. I don’t find myself saying this often when I bake chocolate cakes. This was one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever made. This easy recipe is from a cake blog that I just adore https://livforcake.com/french-silk-pie-cake/ Olivia bakes and decorates cakes that are so precious, you guys have to check out her page. This particular cake has buttermilk in it which I love, because buttermilk gives cakes moisture. The texture was perfect not crumbly or dense. Now on to the Swiss meringue buttercream that the cake is decorated with. If you guys have never made Swiss meringue buttercream, I can’t express enough what you are missing. Swiss meringue buttercream is made by heating egg whites and sugar than whipping up this mixture into a beautiful meringue. Than slowly butter is added and flavors. I like this technique because it pasteurizes the egg whites. The flavor is so much lighter than american buttercream, it does not crust over, and great for decorating. This buttercream was definitely intimidating for me. Usually you tend to see this frosting on wedding cakes or may be you are like me, I use to believe it’s just for the pros. But it’s doable for the home baker. Enjoy!
- Chocolate cake (get recipe https://livforcake.com/french-silk-pie-cake/)
- Swiss meringue buttercream
- 3 egg whites at room temp.
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened at room temp.
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- simmer 1 inch of water in medium pot
- Use bowl of electric mixer. add egg whites and sugar and mix. Place this bowl over pot of simmering water. This creates a double boiler.
- Heat this mixture, continuously whisking. Mixture should not be boiling. The sugar should be completely dissolved. Use you index finger and thumb to feel the mixture and make sure it's not grainy.
- Take bowl and attach to stand mixer. With whisk attachment whisk on med-high until stiff and glossy peaks form. This can take up to 20 min. Make sure the bowl is completely cool down before next step of adding butter. Use frozen veg packs on the side of bowl to help cool down.
- Change attachment to paddle. Start adding butter 1 tablespoon at a time and making sure well incorporated before adding next piece of butter. If large pieces of butter is added the mixture will turn soupy.
- Once all butter is added, add vanilla and salt. If the frosting is soupy consistency you can place entire bowl in fridge for 5-10 min and remix. You can also change back to whisk attachment to whip. It should come together.
You need a stand mixer, hand mixer may burn out.
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